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Hello Cleveland, Week 4 NFL Picks, NBA Award Leans, Raiders Realities, and Boston Despair With Joe House, Tom Pelissero, and Bill’s dad

from The Bill Simmons Podcast ·

149m 54s

Hello Cleveland, Week 4 NFL Picks, NBA Award Leans, Raiders Realities, and Boston Despair With Joe House, Tom Pelissero, and Bill’s dad

The episode blends sports analysis, betting insights, and promotional content, centering on the evolving performance of NFL and WNBA teams. The Browns’ unexpected victory over the Steelers showcases resilience and improved team execution, while Deshaun Watson’s resurgence signals a turning point for the Houston Texans, driven by new offensive strategies and coaching. In the WNBA, the Aces’ win over the Fever highlights their offensive efficiency and composure, though the game was marred by officiating issues and controversy involving player Asia. The discussion also reflects on the unpredictability of modern sports, including player performance, team dynamics, and officiating standards. Promotional segments highlight Core Power Protein Shakes for post-workout recovery and FanDuel’s Rewards Club for bettors. The team evaluates betting lines, including confidence in the Texans, Rams, and Bengals, while acknowledging the risks of over-relying on trends. The episode concludes with a mix of humor, player narratives, and strategic insights, emphasizing how teams evolve and how fans engage with the games. It also touches on broader themes like league fairness, player development, and the impact of coaching changes.

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This episode is brought to you by Core Power Protein Shakes. You know how we always talk about the little things that separate great athletes? Post-workout recovery is a big factor. Core Power Protein Shakes help you keep going after your workout with high-quality protein to build muscle and electrolytes to help hydrate. It's all you need for your recovery in one bottle, available in 26 and 42-gram protein options to pick what works best for you. Visit corepower.com to learn more. This is the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Make every NFL week more rewarding with FanDuel Rewards Club. You heard me. Just bet like you normally would. Earn points in eligible settled bets, win or lose. Keep collecting points, level up, and unlock bigger rewards. So keep an eye on your Rewards Club progress and see what you can unlock. This is your most rewarding season ever, and it's with FanDuel. 21-plus select states are 18-plus D.C. or Wyoming. Get in a problem, call 1-800. Call 1-800-GAMBLER, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat, Connecticut. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ All right. I was just doing a tweet house. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast. We're live on Netflix. Very good sports night. Joe House is here. You can also listen to him on Ringer Wiseguys and Fairway Rolling. I have a new Rewatchables coming on Monday House. We're doing Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Wow. The OG from the 70s? The OG from 1974. It's on every streaming service right now, including Netflix. So see how they're going to, break all of it down. Wow. Very fun movie to research all that stuff. Okay. So we had a pivotal best of three baseball game, which we're not going to talk about. We have. Well, it was over in one inning, so it's fine. Yeah, it was over in one inning. Philly shot the road with their pitching. We have Fever Aces, which we will talk about in a little bit. And then we had an incredible, for a Thursday night, Brown-Steelers game. The Browns win in the end. 56-yard field goal. They almost blow it. They kick the ball right at the end zone. They learned nothing from the Cowboys four days ago. But then Rodgers throws a pick. That's it. The Browns are three and one and looked really competent. And they were underdogs in this game. I stayed away. If we had done Ringer 107 and include the Thursday night, I would have thought about them because I didn't think they should be underdogs. But I was impressed. I don't think it's like going to be a one seed or a two seed, but I do think they have a chance to make the playoffs. Yeah, I feel kind of bad. I'll confess. I have two apologies. One to you. But the first one I want to. Why are you apologizing to me? Because you and I had a conversation about the Browns. And you were like. You soured me on them. I was going to. I'm not sure that I really wanted to. And yeah, I tried to talk you out of it. But I also owe. Because their over was five and a half. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I owe Anthony Jeselnik an apology. Because on this program last week, you made mention of Anthony and his new podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. Jeselnik Book Club. Yeah, and you tried to like get some enthusiasm out of me in support of this. And I had been on a business trip. I was unaware of the arrival of the Jeselnik Book Club. I was barely aware that you had interviewed him last week. And I thought it was a bit. I thought you were setting me up for something. So I was kind of dismissive. I'm a big fan. I'm a fan of Jeselnik. I'm a fan of the book club. I'm a fan of the pod. So apologies to AJ. So you want to be invited on the AJ book pod now? That was your official resume. No, I think. Listen, you're eligible. Ringer people go on the pod. I mean, I volunteer for every Ringer pod. So that goes without saying. What do we do with this Deshaun Watson resurgence? Because this is now two and a half games in a row that he's a little confident. And it started with that Tampa game that cost both of us money. We're in the second half of the game. Second half, over and over again, he was just completing passes and doing things. Today, there were moments when he was moving around like Houston Deshaun. Yeah. It was kind of shocking. I didn't even know he had that in him anymore. You know, and he made a couple of dumb throws and it wasn't like he was perfect, but he's certainly so far ahead of where we were a couple of weeks ago when we were doing the countdown to last games ever to bet against Deshaun Watson. I think he's kind of shoved that whole thing away, right? The. True credit, I think, goes to Todd Munkin. I think the combination of just the confidence that Munkin has plus Munkin is. We now are having this experience where we're seeing superlative offensive coordinators. And when you see it, you're like, oh my God, he's in his bag. This guy is calling a game where he understands where his advantages are. And the amplifying effect that it has on quarterbacks, we just watched an out-of-body experience out of Case Keenum, on Monday night. And then that same kind of concept reinforced here tonight with Deshaun Watson we haven't seen in five years, six years. How long has it been since you see him playing with confidence, with instinct, right? He's not thinking anymore. No, he had a couple that create a play when there was nothing in the play place that he used to do when he was at Houston. Right. Haven't seen that in forever. Well, it really helps that they nailed, you know, two drafts in a row, which was one of the cases I had for trying to figure out if they were going to go over or not. And the quarterback situation looks so bleak in the preseason. It just wasn't a responsible pick. But Concepcion and Boston, they nailed both of those picks, right? And they're two different types of receivers that complement each other perfectly. And it's like, all right, they were two top 40 picks. Like, congratulations. But listen, the Patriots have been drafting second round receivers and end of the first round receivers for this entire season. This entire century and haven't nailed any of them. And they nailed both of them. Like, you're lucky to go one of two in those situations. And then I thought Judkins had some life too. They lost Mason Graham in the first half, which didn't seem like a good omen. And they let Pittsburgh hang around. Yeah. And it was the kind of game that I feel like the Browns would have blown. Browned away. In years past. And when I say years past, I mean the entire existence of this Browns expansion franchise. Last year, earlier this season. The 2010s, pick a year. They probably would have blown this game, but they did not. The interesting thing to me is also, speaking of Munkin, I'm just going to do this whole Munkin dance. I like it. They have a completely revamped offensive line. Which is to say, nobody of any particular acclaim or vintage. But, scheme-wise, because of what they are trying to accomplish with their run scheme, especially, you see Judkins getting loose and it creates an advantage for the pass offense. Yeah. And again, they have the fan-in too. That's right. This place is Judy. I forgot was on the team. And then all of a sudden, he had a couple catches. Important ones. So they go, House, they go at the Jets next week. Ravens home at Titans. At Steelers. I'm just looking for easy games on the schedule for them other than at Titans. They have Texans, Raiders, Bengals, Falcons at home. They're at the Giants, which the Giants might be tanking at that point. And they're home Colts and at Bengals. There might be like nine wins in there. I don't know if that's, I don't know if there's 10. Yeah, that's a, I mean, the challenge now is like the Raiders, that's not a pushover team. The Jets, I don't think are a pushover team. Like where were you? I would go through and say, okay, two Bengals games left, two Ravens games left. Basically. They do have two first round picks and they could potentially do one of them. The better they are, the stranger these broadcasts are going to be when they have to, they force themselves to have the obligatory Deshaun conversation too. Where they, it's like, ah, we got kind of got to do it and then they want to do it, but they don't want to spend too much time on it and they got to kind of rip through it. And I guess that we're just going to be doing that forever too. Well, I mean, four games in, let's see how this week plays out, but he's in the top half of the league of quarterbacks. Is he in the top 10? This is crazy. I mean, he was Sean Watson. He was so bad in that first game. Yeah. That it felt like they, it almost felt like Monken was throwing him to the wolves in those first two games so that he could start Shador in week three at home and just be out of this and be good. And, um, I don't know if it's going to happen on the, uh, on the Pittsburgh side, they're two and two, another competent Aaron Rogers game. Yeah. But you know, he had a hundred yards. Yeah. He had a couple across the body throws. I thought he took some hits. I didn't get the feeling from him that, you know, he was just trying to get rid of the ball and not get hit at all. Like you do sometimes when you watch them. And I thought he was good last week too. Um, they figured out something with the tight ends met calf, who I think only had five catches, but they were over a hundred yards with the catch. and Jalen Warren just turning the running game over to him seems like it's okay. They're fine. They're going to be in that 8-9, 9-8, somewhere around there too. Of course, yeah. The defense is good. The defense turned the game with the two, generated the two turnovers that you expect out of Pittsburgh. That's what put the game in, you know, within arm's reach of them winning. Do you think they could use Joey Porter in that game? End of game possession. Maybe. Maybe they could have used him. A couple plays, Boston going deep. Good Thursday night game, though. Really good. Like, good spirited, divisional game, well played. I'm interested in looking at where the EPA and success numbers come in because it felt like it was pretty efficient. I didn't feel like I was watching a lot of bullshit tonight. Yeah, and Bill's Lions was good in week one. At least fun to watch. Last week, Green Bay didn't show up, but Atlanta, they were kind of fun to watch. So maybe Thursday night's a wrap. Thursday night. Who knows? Fingers crossed. We're going to do a lot more NFL in a second because we have Ringer 107. We got to talk Fever Aces. How closely did you watch what was going on in this game? I watched, like, the entirety of the second quarter, and to me, that was the sort of difference in the game. It was that stretch where, towards the end of that quarter, the Fever couldn't score, and every possession looked like, it was hard. They were laboring on offense. There were step-back three attempts. They weren't getting offensive rebounds, and that was the margin the Aces needed because the Aces were getting buckets when they needed to throughout the game, and you knew for sure after the first quarter went 31-31, like a giant scoring quarter in an elimination game. You knew it was going to ratchet down, and then, you know, you're looking at, for the balance of the game, quarters where the highest scoring quarter was the highest scoring quarter. The highest scoring team was the Aces in the fourth quarter, and that's just because they're getting the fouls at the end. Championship game. Yeah. This is a team that's won three out of four years. They have the best player of all time in the league who put up 36 today. It was 12 for 15, free throw line. Watching it, and thinking the Caitlin side, too. Caitlin goes another year now without winning anything. It felt a little 2005-2007 range Nash versus Duncan to me. Watching it. Because I think. I thought the Fever were really fun to watch this year. I love the way they played. But the worst habits of them were when they weren't running as much, things slowed down, and they would just start jacking up threes. And I think the two guards today for them, Clark and Mitchell, were six for 23 from three. There you go. Right? That's the game. But here's the thing. In the last five minutes, they had the ball with a chance to tie twice. Right? Mitchell missed a little bunny one of the times. And then the other time, Caitlin threw her the ball, and it just kind of ricocheted off of her out of bounds. And then you go on the flip side, those two Vegas guards and Asia are just. I don't know how he's. The Asia, like, I guess you gotta double her. Maybe we'll see somebody do that in the next. I would never have her have the ball alone at the top of the key, ever. And that's what they run. I haven't seen anybody stop it. I know, it's just send a second person. Let everyone else beat me. I don't. You know, and then Chelsea Gray had a couple handed in the face. Crazy shots. But this game came down to, like, five plays. And they just made all the plays because they're the champs. Yep. And if I'm the Fever, I'm like, all right, it's a little differences. But that was what that Nash-Duncan era was like, where it was like, the Suns were right there. And, you know, it was just a couple different plays. There was some style stuff. And then there was Duncan and Asia. Like, you know, if they. If the Fever could figure out offensive rebounding. Yeah, what was the final? They got. Yeah, Mitchell was seven for 23, by the way. They just didn't play well. You know, the smartest thing Asia did was not play in the Fever thing. Uh, yes. Rested the legs. She. I think she needed the rest. Leave it at that. So, Caitlin, the narrative now will be, hey, she's never won anything. Congrats on your shoe selling out. I think she's incredibly fun to watch. I have. There's no. There's going to be no. No jabs in Caitlin coming from. Coming from my side. But it is true that she is never won anything. Today, she was six for 18. And had six turnovers. Three for 12 from three. Yeah. Not getting it done. And got nailed in the mouth at one point. And looked like a. One of the things I noticed when I watched. I mean, this is probably one of the biggest non-finals game in the history of the league, right? Sure. And the officiating was bad yet again. I just. I'm always like, what's. What was that? How was that? Are they going to challenge that? You're just kind of constantly asking. But I think the way Asia plays is just kind of perfect for that chaotic. The refs kind of don't know what to do. I don't know how you call anything one way or the other on her. She's creating contact all the time. And they're the best team. And they're probably going to win the title. She went 12 for 15 from the free throw line. We're going to get Ace's liberty again. That's what's going to happen. That's fine. Yeah. I'm disappointed in the Lynx. I wanted the Lynx. And then Miles got hurt, though. Yeah. Yeah. She wasn't remotely the same. Do you follow the controversy at all? The guy pointing at Asia and Asia kind of leaving the court, walking toward him. I saw it. Don't think she needed to leave the court. It was a weird one. Don't mind her yelling at the guy. Understand, you know, from her perspective, why that felt the way it felt. But to leave the court. Yeah. I don't know what the buildup was in those Indiana games with the fans. Yeah. And if it's other. And that was the culmination. But just as an isolated incident, that was ridiculous. And I didn't think that was a great thing. This league over and over again, every time they're circling a great moment or a great game, they have to have some dumb shit happen. They just. It's like the league can't help stepping in it every single time with some dumb event like that. And this is Asia, the best player in the league, coming off a crazy game one, crazy in game three. And then tomorrow, the dialogue will probably be more about her and that fan 24-hour hours of, you know. Why didn't the W.A. be punished for all that stuff? It's just. The league can't stay out of it, house. They'll figure it out. Or they won't. You seem. Did you lose money on this game? You seem kind of low energy on that. I just want to be very careful. I feel like it's. It's a scared house. This whole thing, the whole kit and caboodle, just. I admire. The Aces handled their business. The funny thing is, five minutes ago. Five minutes ago, five minutes from now, you're going to be telling somebody to eat a big dick in the NFL. But WNBA, we're going to be careful. You've been betting on WNBA this year. I did. I did. I had a nice run with the Mystics. The Mystics were very good. They made a push to get to the playoffs. It was absolutely the worst possible matchup for them going against the Dream. The Dream have their number. It was sad. Yeah. We're going to do Ringer 107. It's brought to you by FanDuel. Make this your most rewarding season. Download the FanDuel app to check all our Ringer 107 picks and boosted teasers every week this season. The biggest question I got for the past week was, did we find a sponsor for Eat a Fat Dick yet? And are there going to be t-shirts? Was another question. Oh, that's. Somebody's got to do that. There were t-shirts about my colonoscopy. That's true. So now people are wondering, are there going to be Eat a Fat Dick t-shirts? Would House be on the shirt? What are the shirts going to look like? Is there a logo? Seems like there's some interest and the sponsor stuff. We did get some approaches for some sponsors. Good. I wouldn't say they were any mainstream sponsors. There was one that seemed like it might have been a sex toy company. That feels right. A couple sausage places. Yeah. But nothing that really caught my eye yet. I'll keep you posted. Okay, thanks. But I don't know if you're. If you need me to set you up later for somebody to eat a fat dick, tell me. We'll see how this all plays out when we start talking about these games. What's your record in Ringer 107? Mine is 7-8. I'm 8-7. I'm 7-8, but if you just remove Tampa Bay, I'm 7-5. What a fun way to do it. Sure. Just remove whoever the biggest loser is. Last week's strategy, Tampa can't possibly break the record for most times not covering the spread. This would be the week that didn't work and Baker Mayfield broke his thumb. Wasn't it awesome? This is their week. Yeah. Before we get to Ringer 107, I do have a couple mailbag things just really quickly. Great. I got a bunch of people sent Drake May names that I didn't really appreciate, including Drake Bortles, Drake Mayday, Drake Madoff, and Drake, maybe Mac Jones seem to be the more, the most competent ones. Walker from Georgia is a Pacers fan who thinks you should give the Eat a Fat Dick Award to the NBA scheduler who scheduled Halliburton's first game to be against the Pelicans on League Pass. Oh, wow. He said all the Pacer fans would love for that guy to munch on one. Well, I don't understand. What's that mean? It just felt like the guy made the finals two years ago. He's one of the league's best young stars and his first game first game back from a really traumatic injury. And it's like, eh, go find it on league pass. They get to, they get to play the Pelicans. Maybe they should be playing like, I don't know, somebody good. I guess, I guess I get it. Sam from Nashville, um, heard me, me and Brian Curtis talking about Mike Tomlin and how he's the, uh, been the first real football media star we've had since Romo broke out that year. And he mentioned that it was a day before we found out about this Minecraft thing that Tomlin had when he spelled out the city that he built in Minecraft for 12 years and how he really got into the Jack and Jill bathrooms. And he doesn't think this is a guy that's getting back into coaching. We're going to have him announce him for a while. I don't understand Minecraft. Do you? Like, I didn't really know what was going on there. My kid plays it and he plays it with other kids. And there is like this concept of building things. But I don't know to what end. Well, I guess you build whatever you're building and then what do you do? Show people? I don't know. That's what I mean. That's exactly what I'm saying. Do I compete against other people? I don't know. I have no idea. I haven't gotten engaged in it. Just see him doing it. It feels like it's productive. It's, it's more, um, you know, Neither of us are going to judge what somebody does in their dumb spare time. No, I've certainly done a bunch of dumb stuff, but the Minecraft, I just don't, I don't understand what it is with the video game stuff that's out there. This feels wholesome to me. Minecraft. Although no, I don't think I should reference it. Great. Karen in Manhattan beach asked if I'm worried that the Seahawks Superbowl was Drake May's version of the Atlanta Hawks game seven that Ben Simmons had when he spiraled the wrong way. That's a tough one. Karen didn't appreciate the email. Um, Patrick in Canada. It was one of many to point out that, um, that Jim Harbaugh, I theorize that if this Chargers season goes badly, he'll be looking for the exit door to go back to college. Yes. Well, he can't because he's suspended for multiple NCA things. So he actually, he can't go back to college, which I didn't realize. And he can't go back to college for a while. So it's either get fired, um, go into TV or I guess resign. or you know battle it out like a man I think the point is I think Jim Harbaugh is sticking around all right ringer 107 I have first pick this week you do it's week four it's week four you know there's a couple lines that are at minus three and I was kind of wondering if they might drop to minus two and a half for Sunday and be my fifth Sunday pick because we pick three today and then teaser then we have a fifth pick on Sunday I'm just going to roll the dice with this first one because I don't think the line is going to go down Texans minus three against the Cowboys Texans home it seems like Nico Collins is back I assume he's back he's practiced today we won't know officially until tomorrow I was going to wait until Sunday to make sure he was back but I think if people know he's back I think this goes up Houston's 0-3 I think I've had them at least two of those three weeks in ringer 107 I thought they should have won last week and they just kind of gacked the game Dallas is coming up that weird Brazil game Dallas's defense they traded for Joey Porter this week and might actually throw him out there why not it's an all-time must win for Houston whose season ostensibly could be over anyway because they've been 0-3 back-to-back seasons nobody's ever made the point that they're going to win playoffs after two 0-3s in a row and made the playoffs both times but I you know looking back at those three games house oh my god I'm not saying they could be 3-0 but I'm saying they could be 3-0 it's one of those like either three either or games and and I just don't see how they go on for I like the matchup with them too because they have that secondary that they can throw on the Dallas receivers and Nico is where if Nico wasn't playing I think this line would be minus two I think he's worth more than a point so anyway Texans minus three is my first one yeah I like it I couldn't get myself there just because I had to get out of the Texans business that I lost the first couple weeks the same way you did but Nico I was trying to be stubborn and say oh they could still have success without Nico my real problem with the Texans is going back to week three in Indianapolis they just needed a stop and they couldn't get the stop they just needed to keep the Colts from getting the ball and going down the field to get into the field goal range and they couldn't do it and the defense has been giving up explosives and the one thing that Dallas can do it's an in a dome it's a fast track I like the Texans here but I'm just not willing to go the extra mile with it I think that they're going to win and I think they're going to win by three or more to me this is a big picture pick where it's almost and I know we're not supposed to think this way going game to game but is this Texans team really going to go 0-4 with the amount of talent that they have and just because Nico Collins got hurt for two games I can't buy it so I'm going to have to lay the points and just do it what's your first pick I was worried that you were going to take this one when you started off with the idea of laying the three I have no problem whatsoever laying the three with the LA Rams going into Philadelphia and taking on this Philadelphia team where something inside seems rotten I know that we've learned over the years to not overreact when it comes to Philadelphia but their defense is not elite their defense was supposed to be elite it is not elite they are not getting pressure they are not getting pressure they let Case Keenum get whatever he wanted they got out-schemed and this is a must win for the Rams Puka is back Puka is back but it's the one thing that worried me about this game is he's back but would I bet my life he's playing on Sunday I don't know they're like it's looking like he's going to be back but it feels like he's got like a hip hernia type thing see I wondered if they're doing a rope-a-dope with that a little bit so that Philly can't easily game plan for him but there's some indication that Devontae Smith is possibly going to miss he's definitely banged up and as a general proposition that receiving core and Hurts still in search of Goddard's injury is a big deal Hurts got a catch Zach Hurts welcome back to the NFL he had a great he was on Schrager's show I thought the first week oh amazing Schrager renamed the show he's calling it Get Back Up is he? no okay I don't think that's true it was a link to Get Up it was in the afternoon Get Back Up Get Back Up exclamation point Get Back Up I'm with you on the Rams and that was my next pick oh good okay yeah so I'm piggybacking you I think it's 2-1 on piggybacks look at us I think it's 2-1 on piggybacks I think it's 2-1 on piggybacks Rams coming off a loss I like it yeah Puka I hope you're right on the rope-a-dope Rams would be 1-3 if they lost this game that seems inconceivable but the biggest thing to me is I just don't think there's a couple teams I went against this week or I'm thinking of going against that I just don't think are good yep and I don't think the Eagles are good I don't think the Case Keenum thing was an accident I don't think he took anybody by surprise I don't think this was oh my god Ben Johnson was in his bag I just don't think they're that good they have one receiver Barkley has clearly not the same guy that he was a couple years ago their offensive line is not even remotely close to what they've had in years past they're one of those teams where it's like what is your what's your like major strength that stands out because in the old days you'd be like the Lions they own the trenches defensive line offensive line Carter he has an injury too but Carter hasn't been the same guy yeah and I I thought the I thought they could have easily lost in week one to your team right yeah and then week two wasn't impressive either and then last week was embarrassing could have and should have lost to the Titans I mean it was a pretty extraordinary drive that Jalen Hurts led them on to beat the Titans at the very end of that game week two yeah and you could excuse it because there's humidity and some other stuff but last week I just I wasn't surprised I liked the Bears in that game yeah um yeah Eagles through three weeks 24th in the NFL in defensive pressure rate that sucks yeah that doesn't sound like them nope and when you watch the Lions sometimes I just when I watch the TV I just like to see what which way the Lions are going when the ball gets snapped and the Eagles line always used to go forward and now it kind of doesn't yeah so that was my second pick Rams minus three I thought about that was the other one I thought about waiting until Sunday yeah but I don't think that goes down no I'm worried especially if Puka's gonna play I think that could bump up to Rams three and a half if there's news of anything like if if Devontae Smith misses that might move a half point in the other direction might be three and a half by game time the other thing when you talk about home field advantages and obviously if things are going well philly's got one but i think philly's one of those nfl cities where if it's not going well you can really feel it yeah and those fans do not like it i could see this being one of them where you can just kind of feel the vibe through the tv of the fans the you know the phillies lost today they're out um and the eagles if they blow this game you could feel the whole city kind of mentally shifting toward the sixers the sixers they're getting ready for the sixers so get ready it's like officially if the rams are up 27 10 early in the fourth quarter it's like lebron time baby mb said lebron came to philly to help him win a title that was his number one reason i love that mb he's so sweet that he believes that he only your your best bit this whole week was mb just play once a week amazing let's do that yeah why not why is he going to play more than 30 games before the playoffs it should be like a tv show where one of the stars just isn't on every episode it's great they just kind of it's a 22 episode season and they're just on 10 episodes but they still get to be in the opening credits yeah all right so i have texans minus three and rams minus three you have rams minus three what's your second pick um this one's a great 50 50 game and i'm fascinated to see how it plays out i'm gonna go ahead and take cincinnati at home laying only the two and a half against jacksonville and it's there's two two pieces to it the first piece is um i feel like joe burrow and his weapons haven't gotten entirely on the same page yet they're not completely firing on all cylinders but i think that this jacksonville um they have a pass funnel defense which is you know part of of their thing they're very good against the rush um but they're okay with with teams throwing um and i think that this is a spot where cincinnati comes in and we start to see those guys on the same page the other thing about cincinnati that i like is their ability to generate some pressure and the numbers are pretty dramatic when you're looking at um uh the beautiful one under pressure lawrence his splits under pressure versus clean just call him the beautiful one i mean with the luscious locks and everything i didn't realize they were luscious they're not you don't think they are yeah he looks like a professional wrestler from the 80s so we haven't really seen him against pressure um lawrence you know cleveland didn't really get to him new england blitz but they didn't get any pressure out of the blitzes defense was a little banged up too and then denver in that second half especially they got to him and he was four for 13 on dropbacks under pressure um and much better when he was clean so i'm i'm sort of part of this wager is on the idea that the bengals defense is going to be able to you know they run they just rush four man they put them down but they generate their top 10 and pressure with that four man front so i like the idea of cincinnati getting some pressure on lawrence um and i like the idea of the offense getting going and i'm fine two and a half seems like a fair number it's funny i i had one of my almost picks and i didn't like the plus two and a half if it was three i would have really thought about it sure i watched that entire bengal stewards game last week i think you can throw in the bengals and they had a lot of trouble over the middle with tight ends and running backs coming out of the backfields um they got beaten deep a couple times and it feels like to me the jags have the perfect personnel to attack them um they do it's three very good receivers and a very good tight end it's a classic if you like the jags it's they're coming off a big awesome win the bengals are coming off a loss you never want to take the team coming off the awesome win against the team coming after the annoying loss yeah um but i do like the matchup for them and cincinnati's defense they gave up 27 to baker and they gave up 30 to aaron rogers so it's a little bit of a are we sure they have a good defense uh i know some of the stats have been favorable especially against the run but anyway i stayed away from that my next one's going to be a tease and it's the most chalk tease imaginable and i just got to do it because uh i think maybe twice a month there's going to be one where it's just like i just feel really good about this first part seattle is minus seven against uh herbert and the chargers yeah um i love this because seattle's coming off a loss if seattle won last week i think i'd be more nervous about this because the chargers about to go on four but man seattle coming off a loss darn old too we all made the mistake last week of forgetting that he just hadn't played football and that was being thrown i kind of wish lock had played last week i would have felt much better about the bet i handicapped um this game as though lock was going to play last week yeah last week uh on on our ringer wise guys on friday my wise wager was seattle to win the first quarter and when darnold came out i was like oh i'm i'm i'm dead and then i was especially dead because jadarian price put the ball right on the floor on the 20 yard line and washington got a touchdown off of that um and that bet was was dead which i was kind of fine to to live with because yeah because your team had a great win your team might be alive for the season yes but i like that they're coming off a loss running back issues now yeah which means that they spent the week trying to figure out an actual plan for the running back issues sharpening is not coming back yet um and i assume wilson touches are fine yeah and i'm sure they have some some wrinkles for that so you have herbert on the road you have an exceptionally loud crowd going against an offense that doesn't seem like it knows what it's doing yet that feels like it's still learning all the signals all the movement everything that's going on in the game and they have a bad offensive line and um just a weird offense in general and the big thing to me is seattle is really going to lose back-to-back games to washington a game that they probably should have won and then they're going to blow a chargers game at home i don't see it so i'm bringing them down to minus one and sadly i am teasing them with the buffalo bills down to minus one against the new england patriots um i think this game will be rock bottom for the pats i as you know i took the jags last week i did not think the pats were going to win last week i think they're even in worse shape this week with a ton of pressure on may who's been the talk of the town him in the red socks what's wrong with him has been all week all anyone's talking about um aj brown's not back yet their offensive line they're on their third right guard um the backup for unwin who got hurt last year he's out now um i think the middle of the offensive line is really rough that i don't think they're gonna be able to run the ball even against the pats they really don't have a deep threat at all they don't have anybody that i think may trust um the two tight end offense with henry and rared and the rookie rared and got hurt so they can't do that and i just don't i don't think they're going to be able to match points with buffalo and that's before going in all the defensive issues injuries i don't to me this isn't like uh our season's over if we lose this game because i think they're supposed to lose this game and i think they will and i think next week is when you start figuring out you'll be one in three you get aj brown back where are we okay time to time to kick ourselves in the ass to get going i just don't think they can match points with josh allen a guy who has owned them over the years so seahawks minus one bills minus one both of them have to win six point tees which is minus 110 on fan duel and that's what i'm going with um i'll go ahead and do my tees as well because i also have seattle as one of my legs okay um my second leg i've been really going back and forth i kind of want to do the falcons because it sets up properly for the plus eight and a half you get through all of the key numbers that way don't do the falcons i i don't but right it's it's the katrina thing it's the katrina game it's a stay away and the state right that's where i'm that's where i'm going to end up landing on it so i i'm going to violate the teaser rules a tiny bit but i'm going to do it um in terms of the the the math that supports the play just going through the zero no i'm going to back i'm going to back washington getting nine and a half and take washington from three and a half and go all the way up to nine and a half i don't think washington is going to lose by 10 to the colts both so this is the london game you are breaking a cardinal rule of teases breaking a lot of putting europe slash london in a tease all right yeah i'm breaking every rule it's if you'd put that with kyler murray i think you would get electrocuted hit by lightning bolt yeah i don't i mean the case is both teams coming off of you know really important wins for for their seasons both potentially season-saving wins yeah neither team has an advantage in terms of like the travel circumstances the spot is the same for both teams and i think washington under the numbers really good rush defense one of the best teams in the nfl and rush defense and if the colts can't get explosives against the again then i like washington within 10 points that that's the thesis for it i like it i wish it was actually 10 points right nine and a half i'm not sure what that's getting you i got i understand it got you over eight yep so basically you don't think they're going to be beaten by two stars all right so you have seahawks and then you have washington one in washington yeah plus nine and a half okay i i'm acknowledging i'm conceding that the math is not supportive of a three and a half up to nine and a half i can't believe i'm doing this third pick and you're gonna laugh okay but i do think i'm gonna grab this number while it's the number before it comes down i am going to take the tampa bay bucks yet again plus three and a half fine against green bay this will be the fourth week in a row they might single-handedly kill my ringer 107 um this daniel so palisaro and i are going to talk about daniels in the next segment a bunch this daniels for mayfield if mayfield was the qb i think the line would be bucks minus one and a half right do you think the bucks would be favored with mayfield with how banged up the packers are all over the place yeah their offensive line issues yeah their defense i just think the bucks are favored so they're saying they're basically saying this is a five-point swing if you're operating under the premise bucks minus one and a half now bucks plus three and a half and i don't think baker mayfield the way he was playing is worth five points i just don't well tampa tampa is 32nd in epa in offense right now they have by epa the worst offense in the league if anything daniels's ability to run for his life is probably going to be better than mayfield's there's some other daniel stuff that i'll cover when i talk about it with tom but um 13 straight tampa bay non-covers if they don't cover this right this is really a bad team i think they're a bad team um i think they're closer being a bad football team they have two receivers left they have tucker craft who's not 100 yeah i think they have the worst running backs in the league um i don't think they can block i don't think they have a pass rush i think you can move the ball up and down on them and this feels like a three-point game to me and i get the hook out of it i'm in tampa i don't know what the weather is going to be hopefully it'll be nice and hot make green bay tired but i think tampa can cover this and maybe even win and i'm not scared with daniels yeah what's he gonna do like turn the ball over and fumble it like baker mayfield did it's not gonna be any different yeah i mean some of this i'm interested in seeing a part of the thesis this season for why i i liked uh tampa bay and thought they were going to be successful as the offensive coordinator zach robinson who's out of the mcveigh tree yeah um and and was the architect of an offense that really did work in atlanta when they had stability at quarterback second half of that season the offense was not the problem it was game management and some some defensive lapses for atlanta that kept them out of the playoffs but um for whatever reason robinson and baker and yeah i you know i'm not the offensive line hasn't been good but yeah that's been a weird one for me that their offensive line can't block at least the way they we thought right i mean but we just haven't seen any signs of it they can't establish the run with bucky um but i do like the idea of a backup quarterback i think there's some sneaky good angles um some trends out there that you know where it makes it really hard for a team to to plan for a brand new quarterback and this this kid's undrafted i mean there isn't you know he's in college for six years yeah so he's got plenty of experience um well i i talk about this in the next segment with tom but um they love him great i don't think they understood what they had was the undrafted guy and then i don't think they understood what they had was the undrafted guy they thought he was going against jake browning for the backup job and by the end of training camp they're like that's our guy we're we're in on jaylen daniels well i'll have this on the ringer wise guys i have him over 34 and a half rushing yards it's one of my favorite bets of the entire week i think he can run run run the football yeah i like this as it'll be something weird will happen in the last five minutes to one of these teams but i think it's a close game hopefully it'll be nice and humid i the pack is two receivers left plus craft coming back and no running game at all feels perfect for tampa they'll blitz the hell out of them and um and shut down the run what's your last pick i'm gonna go ahead and offer up a nice glass of settle down juice to the las vegas raiders uh gonna go ahead and lay the four and a half with kansas city um it's a little bit of a rich number but you know i'm gonna go ahead and lay the four and a half with kansas city based on what we've seen out of kansas city thus far um in terms of their success rate their ability to run the football and uh you know surprisingly the defense has been now it may maybe it's not that big of a surprise because the schedule has been favorable for for kansas city like your defense but the young guys we didn't know and the young guys have been good yes so they answered that question we didn't know if they were going to be good they were good against denver uh they were good against indianapolis and they did exactly what they were supposed to do against miami um i like uh that this um situation here where the raiders their numbers are inflated by playing the chargers and the dolphins which kind of makes sense yeah um but i think this is a whole different cat a whole different ball of wax and and my homes and and these guys are ready to serve up some settled down juice i have kansas city laying the four and a half as my fourth and final for this week i like it and i respect it i test drove the raiders a plus four and a half for a little bit the two games i came the closest on other than jags plus two and a half which i i think if that gets to three that could be my fifth pick but um raiders plus four and a half and saints minus two and a half in the katrina game and i don't think the falcons are good but the reason i couldn't get to the falcons is because i don't think the falcons are good with the raiders is actually a little different than what you laid out okay i wish this game was in kansas city i think there's gonna be like 25 000 chiefs fans there oh and in vegas yeah i think it's i think it's gonna be a really lively atmosphere but i also think there's gonna be a lot of chiefs fans chiefs are the most popular team in the league nobody knew the raiders are gonna be good during the off season right if you're a chiefs fan this is a great trip and i think i don't like when the chiefs are on the road in a location where they have a lot of fans going against them you feel stupid in the second quarter like kelsey happens kelsey play over the middle you just hear like a loud noise you're like the chiefs aren't even at home what's happening yeah um i think that i i do think this raiders thing is is pretty real though oh no no doubt about it i think they're a solid team but you're right this is a whole other level and i think the chiefs have a bye next week this is a whole other level and i think the chiefs have a bye next week this is a classic we kind of fucked around in miami let's lay the smack down in vegas let's go to the bye we'll be four and oh feeling good about ourselves so yeah i looked at that the other one i thought about with a tease the lions panthers over um i got burned last week on the under on steelers bangles thinking that was like the lock of the year i just had bad luck with over unders but panthers with both cornerbacks out the lions with no secondary to begin with and being able to tease that down to four and a half i think that's a classic we kind of fucked around in miami let's lay the smack down in vegas let's go to the one and a half on a monday night and just you know 24 to 20 i win 23 to 20 23 19 basically somebody just has to get in the mid-20s and i win or the lions get to 27 so i thought that was spicy and then the the the other one i stared at for a second was washington plus three and a half in london but i wasn't dumb enough to bet on the london game like you because i went you know what it was i wasn't going to wake up and i was like oh my god i'm going to wake up at 6 55 on sunday morning and turn on the tv and it's like colts 10 washington nothing we'll be back and i'm just like oh i already lost i just woke up i didn't get a coffee yet i'm so prepared for it i'm so prepared for it i know well in these cups it's easier yeah no i understand but it'll be the same thing i'll be in you know pajamas i will have my coffee and it'll be first quarter so to recap well it's fun when it's your own team i know plus you might get uh you might get your jd back he could be back unbelievable i do think there's a decent chance this guy right here so my picks texans minus three rams minus three bucks plus three and a half and a tease was seahawks minus one buffalo minus one you have rams minus three bengals minus two and a half chiefs minus four and a half and then a tease with seahawks minus one washington plus nine and a half i kind of like these picks i can't believe i went back to the well and the texans and the bucks again but that's what happens on ringer one of the seven it was brought to you by fanduel download the app now to find our ringer 107 picks make this your most rewarding season fanduel player game odd subject to change the other thing that happened today was jaylen duran signed oh i missed it with the pistons guess what he ended up taking the five-year 200 million dollars he listened to the pod you and goldsberry laid it out for him very clearly yeah it was a great offer his agent listened to the pod maybe you're gonna be one of the top five paid centers in the league take the offer yeah What are the economics of the league? What direction are they headed in? Well, the question. is did he take the offer basically to force the trade down or did he take the offer and it's like all is forgiven i've taken your offer yeah it forced the trade where's he going if there was a trade out there everybody had plenty of time to to step up to the plate and make offers the most compelling trade i i heard was the one that you guys cooked up you and kg that atlanta team that atlanta team by the way just keep an eye on how they continue to build assets that's all i know that's the that's that's a gm who knows what ansi saw sale sale however you say his name yeah not not related to robert but last name the same he is building stuff keep an eye on them just keep watching how they you know they're slowly you know this guy for that guy that grabbing two guys at very low price from oklahoma city because oklahoma city's rotating players out really shrewd we need to we need a netflix poll is jaylen durn worth 200 million dollars for five years i'm going to see that before we wrap it up and go to a break we had a poll already will the browns make the playoffs and no was 60 i agree with no i thought that honestly thought the no should have been higher so we're doing uh we're doing the over-unders with zach in a week and a half let's go and i know you've been doing some homework you know i have been can i spoil one team that i like for you i'm listening because i know you like the same team because we've known each other since 1988 memphis is 29 and a half yeah it's too low that was the one that jumped out to me in the west i was like oh 29 and a half there's no tanking this year that's so that team's gonna play hard every game that's the challenge this is the thing with with a team like memphis the reason that we like memphis is because they have their guys they've done an amazing job of getting their kind of guys all under the tent in in they got rid of guys that are not their guys and they have a whole bunch of guys that are their kind of guys they fit the grit and grind those kind of guy i think in the front office now it's like would you like this guy and vernon's like i would i would like cam boozer but to your 30 wins in this league now is is not you don't just coast to 30 you got to go win i mean yeah who who's who's gonna suck in the west we know that the clippers are gonna suck suck suck suck the kings are probably gonna suck uh and and who else in the west the kings aren't gonna suck from a comedy standpoint they're already giving us nuggets left and right they're giving us magic yeah i know you like the white skins too house annoying with it what did that lady say ben simmons zach levine we did it and it kind of went away good job i'm glad let's let it go away let it die those girls didn't do anything wrong they're just talking their truths hot bikes watch out for the hot bikes if you and i on hot bikes oh my god this is why we can't i mean this is when gahow blackmails i got so close um oh gahow's gonna have the results for the jayland durham poll what is your prediction for the 200 million dollars oh is jayland durham worth the 200 million dollars no 82 percent people the america is weighed in it's the answer is no so was memphis your favorite because we're going to do more stuff we might change our minds but that was did you have a team that jumped out to you like that uh not yet no i'm still i'm still working through it i mean my other one was toronto but i got to do the memphis gymnastics so a bit more i'm not there yet with toronto i might be on an island with toronto go look at how they did against teams with winning records i know but now they have kawaii leonard and murray boyles is a year older congratulations maybe jacob purdle won't be stumbling around with a bad back i mean this is the conundrum of kawaii we're gonna see um i mean i'm not here yet i'm not i'm not talking shit about toronto and toronto made me so much money last year i was the one of the most bullish i know of our panel on toronto last year i'm already way over the top with the pacers so i don't need to keep talking about the pacers i think the pacers are still being slept on can i give you one bet that i liked where there's actually been action and it's dropped a little bit okay luka donchich to average 36 plus points per game it was like plus 450 a few days ago and it's down to plus 340 how many games to be eligible for that does he have to play it's there's a minimum number of games to be eligible it's not says the player must take the court and a minimum of one nba regular season game what yeah oh to average yeah okay i see so if he plays wait a minute though that doesn't make sense if he plays 30 games and averages 36 points a game you win the bet if you if what if he plays 30 games it has to can't be that that i'm just reading what it has to be a threshold you can't play 30 games and average 36 and win the bet it seems like you can we'll find out from our fando friends but um i was trying to think what is a realistic number for him for points in my head because he's always around 33 but now they have a team that's built around him even more that's probably going to play a little faster and it's i had him in my head around 35 so 36 doesn't feel like a stretch to average 34 a game is minus 105 i don't want to mess with that that that tells you exactly that market is so sharp it has to be 40 i thought was pretty intriguing uh yannis to average 32 a game is plus 290 which seems outrageous nah um that doesn't make sense yeah and there's some other ones but um but that was luca 36 a game only a couple guys have done it it'd be great pardon did it mj did it here's part of why i think it makes sense i'm i might be on an island with this i think the lakers are going to suck i don't think they're going to be good they can't defend they can't defend they can't defend they're in the wrong conference for what they're trying to do i knew they were in trouble when they were talking about how important matisse theibel is going to be i was like oh at that stage already that's usually february so him getting that in september he if he's if he goes nuts scoring wise it does take some of the stink off the situation but they didn't they they their team building was uh below par that's the way i'll put it for for now i'll save my real comments for later well their defense seems like it's hinging completely on kessler who played five games last year i mean good luck he'd have to play 22 2300 minutes for good effing luck good luck you know the favorite is to an mvp it's got to be wimby yeah two to one yeah makes sense lucas five to one i personally think lucas should be the favorite because he's never won it and he's going to have a giant stat year i'm sick of betting on lucas to this is the great thing about having a vote i don't have to lose money on the uh award votes yeah well yeah wimby's got defensive player of the year is minus 330 and to make the all d team he's minus 500 so those are basically just you're betting on him to get injured yeah 65 games that's it that's exactly it will he play 65 games that's the proposition six million six million of the year right now mitchell is plus 500 and dylan harper is seven to one like we actually might have good six men this year simon's is 15 to one io's 15 to one to rosen's 18 to one peyton pritchard's 20 to one which would be the i know well he's they're gonna turn the whole second unit to him pritchard's 20 to one would be the other one i would look out for that because i think they're gonna bring him off the bench that would make sense for the celtics and then coach of the year sean sweeney 12 to 1 on the magic yeah i mean he's replacing somebody who was not a good coach which is usually the recipe they're they they are telling the world exactly what they think about their situation they brought back the whole goddamn team right they're basically like it was the coach's fault yeah we're gonna run this shit back and we have a guy that we trust now the problem is they have been a below average offense for 15 seasons now and sweeney's a defensive guy so get desmond bain open looks and and beg him to knock them down get sucks to to to get his three-point shooting back and then we can talk nick nurse is 14 to one both for coach of the year and to be thrown under the bus in january with an anonymous piece but from somebody that's two to one under the bus sources anonymous sources say the team is frustrated with nick there's jesus spolster is also 12 to 1 the leader of all these bets is the raptors coach in the jazz coach will hardy sure about 10 to 1 but it doesn't seem like there's a consensus for uh for that one and then i talked about this a little with goldsberry but rookie of the year boozer is the favorite it's boozer wilson peterson and debansa are all three to one four to one range and your guys for it just because it doesn't seem like he's gonna have the ball as much as some other guys totally fair not not gonna knock it if washington sees a way as their season progresses to feed him and to build him up so that he can get rookie of the year. I mean, I will. Well, it's hard to compare them, but I'm not going to be quiet about, no, Cooper Flagg winning Rookie of the Year last year. That was a fucking abomination. What Dallas did in bringing him back and getting him a 50-piece at the very end of the season, I know he's a teenager. It was impressive. It was the lowest leverage situation imaginable. Charlotte had a genuine jump, a significant jump into actually competitive basketball because of Conn Knipple. And for Cooper Flagg, history will always show that Cooper Flagg won the Rookie of the Year. So what I'm saying is, if Washington's season goes a little wacky because AD gets hurt, because Trey gets hurt, whatever, and there's 35 games left, then the thing they're going to play for… is to banter to win Rookie of the Fucking Year. And they'll try and get him to that. I voted for Conn, but I rooted for both of them because it was Conn, my guy, or Flagg, who's going to be on the 2030 Celtics. So I root for both of those guys. Future Boston Celtic Cooper Flagg. I don't want to vote against him. You'll have cap room because Paul George's contract will be off the books. Listen, the buzz with Paul George has been great. Great vent in the locker room. Really looking forward to playing off Jason Tatum. When are you going to give me permission to start calling him Beta Tatum? Is it like how many games in after, you know, how far along? How about never? He won a title. What did Bradley Beal win? Nothing. Bradley Beal's already hurt. Yeah. They didn't win a title. Not before he took Chris Paul's number. No, he's not on that. He's not on that. Still, you know who won finals MVP? Yeah. Not on the team anymore. Jalen Brown should not have won finals MVP. That was ridiculous. Okay. One of my things that I would change about the NBA is more than five people should vote on the finals MVP. You should not be able to win finals MVP by a three to two vote. Fair enough. I have 15 people. You have a million reporters there. Are you going to ask anybody to eat a fat dick or should we go? I don't have anybody this week. Miss Connie. your signature i think you stumbled into the signature segment and now you're you're just gonna let it go you don't want to overdo it you don't you don't want to come right out you gotta save it like if when i'm really upset uh i'll break it out i did call it i i thought long and hard about offering uh giving jim harbaugh an invitation to eat a fat dick after the performance of of the chargers yeah that great but he's like a grandpa he's a mouth breather he's standing on the sidelines like this and the he's like i think we're gonna go for it it's fourth and ten there's five minutes left we've got all our timeouts we're down midfield yeah i think it's one score game i think we're gonna go for i mean i don't i kind of keep making up this accent that he doesn't possess but it's my my my best version of a mouth breather moron uh what the fuck are you doing it sounds like you're offering him a big fat one what you "it was seven and a half the cover was sitting there staring me in the face it's like i i agonized long and hard you're really gonna just boot your season this way you can't get on the same page with your with your you know mikey mixtape the the dj doctor and and run plays that are coherent with a with a a game plan third down a run fourth down a run if you're gonna go for it on fourth down then let's have the plays make sense fourth and ten with five fucking minutes left all right hey jim harbaugh please go eat a fat dick oh that's great i wish you could offer that uh same thing to chad tracy for taking out my starter and back-to-back yankee games before the end of the fifth inning for reasons that remain unclear didn't they extend him oh they sure did i'm gonna be talking about that with my dad later him in your life for a little while all right we're gonna take a break we're gonna get to tom palacero and then my dad and i are gonna talk boston red sox you'll be on ringer wise guys tomorrow let's go let's go get them all up all right taking a break and then palacero the bill simmons podcast is brought to you by fanduel fanduel has a new one this sunday it's called touchdown tally and this is pretty fun basically you want touchdowns everywhere all day because the more touchdowns scored across the nfl the more 100 profit boosts you can unlock it's like a game 30 touchdowns get you one 50 gets you two and if sunday gets completely ridiculous and hits 70 you can unlock that's right three 100 profit boosts so td picks look lamar jackson going against bad defense that sounds good jameer gibbs who's on uh on pace to have like 500 touches and 35 tds or something grab him parker washington on the jaguars i like that i like puka nakua against philadelphia in a comeback game i always like how the rams play against philadelphia so there's four this sunday we're rooting for one thing touchdowns a lot of them doesn't matter what team just get across the line check out touchdown tally on fanduel make this your most rewarding season ever 21 plus select states are 18 plus dc or wyoming restrictions apply see terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com game problem call 1-800-GAMBLER call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat connecticut this episode is brought to you by seven up okay here's a case for conspiracy bill let's bring them in ever notice lemon is everywhere from lemon recipes to lemon scented cleaning supplies when it comes to lemon lime sodas why is lemon always first there's a reason a shadowy organization called the i lemonati that's been padding the stats and keeping big lemon in the lead for decades yeah i studied this but the sip is about to be flipped seven up fighting back swapping lemon lime for their new lime lemon soda that's right lime lemon now lime comes first seven up flip the sip let's go tom palacero is here he is just scooping everybody left and right joey porter trade this week which seemed like one of those logical trades that might happen um and then it actually happened especially after our cowboys last we're going to open up a six-pack uh we did this last we're doing this this week and also we should mention you have the newsletter the sweep which has been excellent and you're in the ringer nfl show as well first thing in the six-pack cowboys now have they officially spent more assets than they got back from michael parsons in that trade on other defensive players where are we where's i mean it depends how you count it because the last actual pick i believe from that trade was in the the malachi lawrence pick that they made in the draft this year i mean you're talking about moving two picks for quinn and williams which was a second and then a first in the following year and then you had obviously they trade a pick for logan williams who's no longer with the team now you're trading for joey porter they traded for rashawn gary this is i mean the past 12 months or whatever you want to call it 10 11 months i've never seen anything like it in terms of completely making over one side of the football through trades you know jerry said it though if you remember that press conference after micah it was like oh all the stuff we can do with the additional resources well they've done it they've turned that into a lot of different players and now you know the second round pick they gave up in the porter trades out in 2028 so once again you're going well beyond the point at which you might even not know that that guy's even going to be on your team and yet they're not as crazy as what the rams did it's kind of like the discount version of all the assets the rams gave up i guess the question for me is like first of all who else was in on the porter thing it seemed like his draft pick was second round was probably the range but was there were they even competing against anybody it was really just the cowboys yeah there were other teams that had inquired his agents were kind of shopping him around over the past several weeks like the chronology on this is they had negotiations going back through camp he's saying he's got a back injury didn't practice you know the first time they saw joey porter jr in pads with this new staff was like last thursday he didn't practice at all well then they got the organizational policy if you get to week one that's it there's no more negotiations so at that point it was either porter was going to sit he was going to play for the steelers or he was going to have to go someplace else and what he told him was if i'm going to play this thing out i'd rather go someplace else pittsburgh was still because they didn't have the level of offer that they wanted to move them they were still trying to ramp them up so last week they went through the week they thought hey this might be it go and play against the bangles got the end of the week he's not quite ready and they had had him they listed him as limited but you have to do that because he was playing scout team so they could test him against dk metcalf and michael pitman this week he you know they didn't practice much because it's a short week but on wednesday he was going to play it was all right it's looking good he was listed as full on monday and tuesday he's in the middle of practice yesterday and goes like uh i don't my back doesn't doesn't feel quite right and at that point the coaches as much as anything we're like we can't keep doing this we can't keep planning for the guy he doesn't want to be here the cowboys had a strong offer so really ramped up last night they had to get the final sign-offs there you know joy porter jr's 24 years old if he were to hit free agency at some point he's gonna make a lot of money and he's gonna make a lot of money a lot of money. He's going to be a $30-plus million corner, even though the stealers and basically everybody else didn't really value him at that level that's why i thought it was hard to get a deal done it was hard to get a trade done before the season because no one was going to be willing to do that on a contract but bill you and i both know in free agency people spend stupid money all the time this could end up being like george pickens where they tag him and he plays another year in dallas and then we'll find out what they do maybe they do sign to extension maybe they let him walk and they take a conflict there's a lot of ways it can go but make no mistake this is a move for the cowboys who have watched that defense not be able to get the stand they saw the seven seconds in rio which sounds like a bad rom-com or poor and they're just like we need we need a cover corner they needed it all along and they went and they got the best one available yeah but ironically you know who else needed a cover corner the pittsburgh steelers i watched them last week they couldn't stop the two receivers on the bengals the whole game um and they even benched the guy they started samuel you know who else needed a cover corner the pittsburgh steelers they put in i think a rookie in the fourth quarter so it's not like they didn't need porter but this is i don't know this feels like a bad trade for everybody because you have you're getting a second round pick in 2028 be of a 42 year old quarterback so what are you trying to do this year i i don't get it if you came to the conclusion this guy's not gonna play and we might maybe he'll play one week and then all of a sudden my back hurts again he's out for a month like that's that's the spot they were in like the whole the way holdouts are used now you know this is really ramped up in the last five years like hold a hold in is not a thing there's not like a thing in the collective bargaining group being like hey you can show up and say oh my back hurts like no the teams can find them they can punish them they can suspend them for conduct detrimental but players have started to learn that they've got power and a back injury as i know from personal experience may not show up on an mri there's no way to prove you don't have a back injury so jalen ramsey did it micah parsons did it now joy porter jr did it is it a coincidence they all have the same agent in david mulageta oh look at you i like this we can all judge we can all judge based on that but mulageta is a big believer you don't give up money you don't hold out then you get fined and then go after your bonus if you show up and maybe you're just not quite ready to be on the field they can't take away your money if they try to it's going to end up being a fight once again you know joy porter jr like jalen ramsey back years ago he got what he wanted and magically maybe even as soon as this sunday uh his back's going to be healthy enough for him to play so you're not disgruntled you're not gruntled you're kind of ungruntled i suppose ungruntled ungruntling yeah it's temporary state until you're gruntled again you're de-gruntled all right joey porter uh good luck to the cowboys i don't think they have it regardless jj mccarthy got traded is that us is that six-pack worthy or no i mean i think so we talked about it last week i i wish we could play back your response when i brought up jj mccarthy as an as a possibility for the giants i would say scoffed would be a fair a fair reaction for me and i get it i i get it it's you know he's had good moments but the bad's been really bad with jj mccarthy the giants look out there there's not a lot of starting options available you know i i thought that it was one of those deals that kind of makes sense for everybody maybe jj mccarthy succeeds in new york if he does it's in part because he needed a fresh start he didn't need to be in the place where he'd become a meme and had all the injuries and he was going to be compared to sam darnold and daniel jones and even kirk cousins you know go to go to the giants where they just need somebody different it's a completely different environment you're not being asked to step in and start and maybe it works out you know the giants had a guy who at least can do some of the quarterback movement things that jackson dart can do so you can that 20 of your offense that just goes out the window with jamis winston because he's never been able to move you can maybe run some of those things with jj and for the vikings they get out from under over four million dollars and they're not going to be guaranteed salary they get a fifth round pick which is market value for these guys you know you go back through time like mac jones went to jacksonville for a sixth justin fields went from chicago to pittsburgh for a fifth that could become a fourth baker mayfield was the same from cleveland uh to carolina kenny pick it was like a bunch of weird picks us but like fifth round pick is kind of the value and it's like well why didn't they trade them sooner because they weren't being offered a fifth round pick they got them right i mean they really seriously they were never going to waive them because they thought they were going to win to eat the money they'd have to eat the money anyway and they thought somebody's going to trade for the guy eventually there's enough teams that high grades on mccarthy coming out that they're going to go you know what like let's take a stab at it like there's something in there he won a lot of games john harbaugh talked to his brother you know you get a little bit of an idea what makes the guy tick i i like the trade for everybody involved including minnesota which now kyler's on a one-year deal with a no tag clause carson wentzman he'll come back as long as you'll have deals you can start with a new gm completely fresh now in 2027 and avoid whatever scenarios would have existed next year of jj and are you going to trade them and are you going to start them you just you wipe the slate clean and start over fifth round picks nothing i never understand like if i was a gm fifth sixth seventh round picks i would take an actual player over those all day how many times do those actually pay off like who's the team that has a fifth round d back right now i'm playing against you i'm playing against you i'm playing against you i'm playing against you are the raiders maybe somebody seattle over time has had a lot of those day three picks and the vikings new gm nolan teasley came from the seahawks like they've lived with those i get it but jj mccarthy was like the 10th pick the eighth pick he's like 22 years old the reason i was surprised they traded him was because i didn't think anybody would offer like a second or third for him but a fifth is like you're giving them away at that point you just want them out of the you can add for the guaranteed money that you'd be sinking into a third you know a number three quarterback like the fifth round pick that could be you know top 150 all right maybe yeah the percentages are low like hitting on that but like you can get guards in the fifth round or you can use that as a chip to potentially move up if you're targeting a quarterback again in 2027 that's it's part of why like some teams philosophically have really gotten into the pick swaps where everything's like we're going to trade a second for a fourth we're going to trade a fifth for a seventh like the way that that nolan and that front office is going to operate like pick swaps you still ended up with the same number of players at least here i can get a player with the fifth round pick and maybe another player with the money so yeah it's not a frontline uh type of a pick but based on where jj is and based on what the preston is it's pretty clear like a fourth to fifth round pick maybe a six like somewhere in there is what you're getting for a former first round pick who's lost his job who's still on a fully guaranteed rookie contract and you're offloading the money because they're not in your three you can't even eat that money it makes sense where these guys bounce around and sometimes they bounce to the right spot and all of a sudden we've seen it over and over again this decade and the thing you might have even been the one that wrote this um the fact that the giants offense is a little like the michigan thing where it's just like you're gonna run the ball and play action and the quarterback's gonna use the legs but we're not gonna ask too much of you and just steer the ship just be a good right be a good player and you're gonna be a good player driver of this car maybe he can do that i didn't built to be built to be physical in the running game and you know use a lot of tight ends and then yeah like the boots and stuff again jamis is like a even when he came out he was a two-sport athlete of florida state but he's like the least athletic looking mover yeah i can ever remember being like a high traffic even jared goff like you kind of know what golf is like jamis is just limbs flailing everywhere like he has to play from the pocket where dart everything they were doing was like there's you know designed runs and there's play action and there's boots like a lot of stuff goes away right with jamis at least jj can do it the question is you know can he stay healthy doing any of that stuff which is also part of the reason that if you game it out all right what's the best they could have done jj goes he gets the reps next offseason he looks pretty good he manages to stay healthy through the preseason which he hasn't been able to do maybe he get a fourth next year wasn't going to be more than that take the fifth now rip the band-aid off and move on maybe he grows some facial hair maybe he maybe he matures in some way maybe who knows maybe he maybe he becomes more of an adult um is jayden daniels worth a six-pack spot sure i mean i think the fact that he's already back on the field after that grotesque looking injury i mean i saw i was watching uh one of the espn shows today and had footage of him in practice and he didn't have a giant thing on his arm or anything and they they weren't i mean he had something on his arm but it wasn't like he wasn't moving like this and then they made it seem like it wasn't inconceivable he could play this weekend which i find hard to believe but what are you hearing i would say it's a long shot that he plays this week but the fact that he's already practicing a gives him a chance and b pose bodes pretty well yeah for him being back on the field in week five he is gonna be wearing like the big barry bonds type brace on it like that was part of the discussion i wrote this in the sweep too like he's probably gonna have surgery after the year to tighten up the elbow but he met with a bunch of different specialists who are all like yeah if you want the elbow to stop popping in and out you're gonna have to get surgery but you're not at any more risk to make the injury worse now he might aggravate it i mean obviously it's tackled and he lands on it even with a brace it's not gonna feel good but it's not like he's gonna do additional damage jayden did not want to have surgery he wanted to come back and play surgery would have been minimum three months it's out for the season like he wanted to get back and so we'll see when that is again it's possible this week I think, especially with the way Marcus Mariota played last week and they got a win. They don't need to push them out there in an international game, but it's not inconceivable. And you know, it does bode well for him being back on the field in week five, which that Jayden Daniels, we saw from the second half of the opener, the first half in Dallas looked a lot like the rookie of the year. Like he's moving well, they have some rhythm. Like Stefan digs has been really good in that offense so far. Like they seem to have, I was genuinely impressed in that Seattle game. Cause I thought Washington was going to stink this year. They were well coached. They, they kind of took it to Seattle. There were a couple of points in the game when it felt like they were going to die and they just didn't. Their defense was actually doing pretty well. And they they're blocking way better than I thought they were going to block. I thought their offensive line was just going to single handedly kill them. They kind of held up against Seattle. And I, it wasn't one of those where it felt like Seattle was asleep and didn't want the game. Cause Darnold was back. Like they were, you know, they really, they got JSN involved. They really were going for it, but Mariota just played great. And I was impressed. And I know there's some coaching stuff with them too, that people are excited about the offensive coordinator and some of the stuff happening there. For David Blau. Yeah. On the third game of his life against Mike McDonald in what, I mean, kind of feels like a must win. Like if you're 0-3 and now you're kind of like, oh my God, this thing's unraveling. If you go back to that game, like he, you've had some really great calls, and some schematic things that kind of threw, especially end of the game. They got those two third downs where it was like, oh, Seattle's going to stop them here. They're going to come back down the way by one. And they've got the third down both times. And he's doing it with a backup quarterback. It's not Jaden who can make something out of nothing. Like Marcus could do that once upon a time, but now he's kind of a, you know, a pocket pass or two, even though he can run a little bit at this stage. I was really impressed, you know, both David Blau and Durante Jones, they're both first time play callers. This is all part of Dan Quinn's plan. Don't let the good young coach, who's out of the building. You, you roll the dice a little bit with that. And you definitely have risk early in the seasons. Those guys we've seen it, you know, with Davis Webb and all the scrutiny on him in Denver, like it's your first time being a full-time play caller. Like there's a, a growth process there. Not many guys step in and immediately it's like just taking off, not just because of you, but because all your players are learning a new system and you're learning how to teach it to them. I thought Blau did a really impressive job in a tough spot. And if they can come out and find a way this week, you know, all of a sudden you could be two and two, getting your starting quarterback back in the lineup in a division that depending, you know, how it's in Dallas, what happens with the giants, the Eagles are, you know, two and one and everyone's predictably losing their minds over. Like you're not out of it. I said from the beginning, I thought Washington was kind of a sneaky team that could be relevant. And if they can find a way to get a win this week, get Jaden back and let's roll. 98 could take the division. What was that year when day ball and Daniel Jones, what were they like nine, seven and one or eight, seven and, I thought they won one or something. I forget, but 2022, they went on the road. I think they were 10. I think they won 10 or nine, they went on the road to Minnesota and beat the Vikings in Minneapolis in a wild. This episode is brought to you by major league baseball. The MLB post-season has arrived. There's no time like October. October starts with hope and then drama and either happiness or some pain. Now the games decide who gets to keep it. It comes down to one series, one game, one pitch, one month. It's not a question of, if history will be made, but when don't miss the moment, tune into the MLB post-season, learn more at MLB.com slash post-season. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think, you know, a browser, but Gemini and Chrome that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online. Makes sense. There's no place. Like Chrome check responses, set up required compatibility and availability. Various 18 plus the car game. This wasn't on your six pack list, but I'm throwing this at you because we're talking about Jaden Daniels and unexpected QBs. I've become intrigued by the Tampa guy, Jalen. And the whole story, I, I admittedly slept on it. I wasn't following the Tampa Bay backup quarterback battle with him. And I think it was Jake Browning. Um, but the story of this kid who was in college, like for, he's one of those guys who was in college forever and got hurt and redshirt a couple of times, but there's like good vibes with this dude. And I'm wondering, I don't, I'm not saying this is going to be Kurt Warner and the Rams cause the bucks aren't that good, but everyone has written them off cause Baker was hurt and Baker has been bad this whole season. Is it conceivable that, that this rookie backup could actually, you know, give a little, give a little life into the bucks? What are you hearing about him? So Jalen Daniels, when I did my annual, uh, quarterback story every year, like I had him seventh round of priority free agent. He was the top one that was kind of on that border where some people liked them, but I didn't get the sense anybody liked them enough to draft them. So he slides through, they signed him for like, it was like a solid guarantee, like 270,000, which usually if you commit that type of money to a guy, you're saying, all right, he's at least going to make the practice squad. So we're not going to lose all this money. He'll at least be around. And what happened in camp was exactly what you said, which was he came on and flashed. Like I kept, you know, when I'm trying to figure out trades and things like that through training camp and up to cut down day, I'm always asking, all right, like, you know, you're looking at the depth charts going to who needs a quarterback. And like Tampa was one that was just jumping out. Like clearly they got Jake Browning. Who's not performing very well. Yeah. Who's on a minimum deal. He got this undrafted rookie and Baker. And I, everyone was like, no, I haven't called. Haven't heard from the bucks on the quarterbacks. And a big part of that was they liked Jalen Daniels. And everything that he brought to the table, you know, he, you brought up how long he played. It was six years. He's the rare guy, six years of college football, zero transfers played all of it at Kansas. Now we get used to these guys play at three or four schools. I went back and looked Jalen Daniels. First game was against coastal Carolina in the 2020 COVID season in that game for the other team for coastal Carolina, Isaiah likely caught a touchdown. Isaiah likely is already on his second contract. And the NFL was playing in that game against Jalen Daniels. That's how far back he goes. Like he's got, he's one of those guys who when scouts talk about, they're like, what's the player's dominant trait. You know, do you have the big arm? Do you have the elusiveness? Jalen Daniels doesn't really have a dominant trait, but he's pretty good at everything. And so, you know, without the dominant trait, he's not the guy that gets drafted, but maybe he comes out and plays pretty good. You know, they, they only added, they didn't go out and trade for somebody, at least not yet. No, they seem fine with this. They signed Brett Rippon to the practice squad. They'll have Easton stick backing him up on Sunday. Like they're rolling with J and Jalen Daniels at a, as an Owen three team that they really needs a win, which says a lot about, you know, what they think of them. I did some recon. I read, I went back and read the August stories when they were like, yeah, we think we have our backup. This guy's been good. And there was a lot of stuff about, you know, he, he was supposed to have his senior year. He was like, you know, like a dark horse Heisman candidate. And that chance to be the big 12 player of the year. And he hurt his back. And basically they had to punt on the air. And it was the second time where he just had a blank year, which is why he was in college for six years. But he did have moments in college where people were like, huh, this guy, there's something here. And obviously it all came together in Tampa, but from watching that team, I can't imagine anybody could be worse than, than some of the stuff I saw from Baker and those three games. I just thought Baker was, it was the worst we've seen him since he was getting waved and passed around. It seems like it's, you know, the classic hero ball thing where the harder you're trying, the more things go wrong. Even the way he got hurt is like a fourth down and he's scrambling around. Like the game's probably over, but like Baker's a competitor. He's always going to compete on every snap. So he's like 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, falling out of bounds, doing circles. Yeah. And then, and smacks his, and then his thumb just disappears on the replay, which is never a good sign. It's dislocated. I mean, they've got a lot to clean up here. So you're, by the way, Bill, as pulled up my story from pre-draft, this was one of my favorite quotes, by the way, 19 and 26 is the starter at Kansas. I don't think it was ever better than six wins of football Mecca. He's six foot and five ACE, 219 pounds. So he's not a big guy. The line from an AFC scout, Jalen scares me. That guy should be a doctor by now with all the college football he's played. And he still makes mistakes that are just goofy. You'll want to see this progression. Like that was it. He had injuries. He had the back injury. He had a shoulder. He just never really took, well, maybe get out of a place where you're throwing to future dentists and go to the NFL, where you've got some weapons on that bucks team. He would Jalen McMillan out. Maybe that, maybe that helps you as you're not throwing the guys who are overmatched every single week. And they're playing the Packers. This is on your six pack. The Packers are terrible. Now they have 10 days between that Thursday night disaster and this next game against Tampa. But my, my guess is the bucks. Oh, and three, they'll run the ball. They'll try to pound the ball down. The Packers. So the Packers are down on receivers. They're decimated all over the place. And the offensive line thing, which was already bad is somehow worse. Is this, what are you hearing? Like about what happens to this team? Does this, do they even think they, they can make the playoffs at this point? Or is this just a lost season already? I would say this. They did some very unpackers things after that loss on Thursday night to the Falcons, like the Packers for years. going back to certainly Ted Thompson, even to Ron Wolfe. You were just, you were a draft and develop program and we're going to play the young guys and yeah, they might struggle, but they're going to get better. If you go back to the tape of that game against Atlanta, there are, I might count four times where they are sliding one direction. Okay. They're slide protected. Like we're not going to get beat on this side and they get beat to the slide side on a four man rush. That should never happen against Atlanta. Atlanta who doesn't have their two pass rushers, right? That's how bad the guard play was in particular. You know, you can cover up a tackle, but like covering up two bad guards. So what do they do again? They've always been drafted to help let them play through it. They go and they sign Kevin Zeitler. They sign McKay Becton and they poach Lake and Tomlinson off a practice squad. Like three guys who have between them probably made 200 NFL starts. They're like, this is a problem and we got to fix it. Like I'm not as panicky about the Packers as I think other people are because Michael Parsons is going to be back. If it's not week five, it's going to be week six that he should be back in the lineup. Like Josh Jacobs will see, I think he comes back at some point, but you just never know when a guy goes on the exempt list and they do like the receivers are playing some of their best football. Watson and Matthew Golden are both playing the best. We've seen him. Tucker Kraft still doesn't look like he's a hundred percent yet. I totally agree that he gets, you think he gets better over the course of the season. By the way, they have no other receivers. They just have those two because reads out now and even if you're more plain and yeah, I was looking at fantasy because you know, that offense has been reliable over the years. I was like, oh, I wonder. If there's a third Packer receiver that could be potential, like grab them, maybe that's going to be a play and it was like Melton boat. Melton Skymore is like, oh my God, this is this team used to have six receivers that you've heard of. Not anymore. Tucker Tucker craft needs to be along with John who Smith who also we forget is there like those guys need to be the additional receivers like they're a team that is built to in many ways run the football and have everything come off of that. They haven't run the football well because the offensive line been so bad. And there are three running backs right now are all like third string caliber, if not practice squad caliber guys like that makes it really, really hard. I do think that they figure some things out, especially if they're able to just to plug the holes with the guards and defensively once Micah returns, like they still have a chance to be a really good defense. They're just not playing well right now. Their running backs are awful. Um, two receivers craft, not craft yet. I just don't, I don't see where the offense comes from in this team. And by the way, Christian Watson is an exact. Um, Cal Ripken junior from a durability standpoint. So no, he is, he has not been, but this is, you know, knock on wood. This is the most durable we've seen. Like you see why they paid him when he's out there. He's he's unbelievable. Like he's a, I mean, easily a top 20, if not a top 10 receiver in the NFL. He's that good. He's just not durable. It's just all of a sudden then he'll have a hamstring and I'll miss six weeks. Like that's been the issue, but like he's everything that the Packers want their players to be other than able to stay on the field. And meanwhile, speaking of this. The Packers, the jets now have this Colts pick. They have the best of the Packers Cowboys pick. I feel like this is the biggest story in the league that barely anyone's talking about. And then they have their own pick. They might have three of the top 10, you know, in this draft that has a bunch of quarterbacks. And I kind of like what I'm seeing from the jets anyway, I think they're, they're at least frisky. They have some talent. Um, I think they easily could have won all three games that they played this year already. And now they have all this stuff. Do you feel like they're not gonna try to shop any of those picks and talk themselves into maybe actually being good this year? Right? I don't have any anticipation that they're doing that. Um, but they do already think that their roster should be competitive every week. And you've seen that, you know, what you've also seen is they've just, they don't know how to win yet, whether it's how the games are being managed, you know, timeout usage, just making the big plays and the big moments like that's the green bay game obviously got away from. It's sort of a wild, uh, type of a way, but you look at, you know, their frontline guys, they really did. Not many teams totally rip it down. Like Darren Muji did in that building. He's done that. They got all the capital. Then you bring in some veteran players to try to help you understand how to win those games. I mean, the Mario Davis on a two year deal and the other older players make a Fitzpatrick who's banged up right now. That's that's been the plan. Like they're anticipating we're in it this year and that's the launching point to then with all those picks. We really figure it out, you know, who knows what happens with Gino. This is probably a one-year stop gap and they're drafting somebody in 20, 27, he could play his way into sticking around for another year. But with three first round picks, Cleveland has two, and then there's gonna be some really bad teams like Miami, even though they're competitive every week, they just don't have the players. Yeah. Um, they're, they're going to be in position. The jets are going to be in position to either have one of the top picks or package those picks to go get one of the top picks, whether it ends up being arch Manning or Dino. Dante more Trinidad, shambles, whatever, wherever we net out in this whole thing, they're going to be able to go get one of those guys. And I'm with you put a young stud rookie quarterback in there with, you know, Brees hall. Once he's able to be back, he's week to week right now. Kenyan Sadiq that for, I mean, his first touchdown catches go. Yeah. That was a cool one. Garrett Wilson. Hey, we finally have a guy. He's alive. Garrett Wilson, the ball. And he's nasty. Like he's a really good player. They've got some, some exciting pieces. They could have been the lions. They were throwing on him now. It's hard to say. The lions cause their secondary is so bad, but that was about as good as Gino's going to look in a game. And Gino is somebody I think we all gave up on last year, but I don't know if I'm the jets. I'm watching what happens with the pats because you had these two behemoths in your division, but the pats might not be a behemoth, which leads us sadly to, uh, Drake may, what are you hearing? This is, this has to be, what's the number one topic where people go and what's going on with blank? Is it the chargers? Is it Drake? May in the NFL right now, who is hitting you up? Big picture. It's the chargers. Okay. Just because the chargers, they don't have a clear win on the schedule and they don't really have a clear out of like, how would you fix this? If this thing keeps going as south as it seems to be, I mean, the Patriots were in the super bowl last year. The chargers have gone to the playoffs twice with Jim Harbaugh. They won 11 games. Yeah. Good for them. But like they've gone one and done in the playoffs, which is not what you pay a lot of money, which the chargers generally have not done. They've gone to the playoffs twice. Not, you know, we traded Kayshaun Booty. That would have fixed it. Like, he's got six catches. isn't Houston. It's not that it's really just nothing's working. And Drake is trying way too hard to make things work. And he lost his number one guy an hour into the season that they had built a lot of the offense around. I don't understand why they're using the running backs, the way they're using them, how they've used Henderson. Um, but the big thing with me, he had a swagger about him last year and digs who I think they miss from a personality standpoint. I think he was really important behind the scenes and building up everybody else and just had a swagger that these current guys don't seem to have. But the quotes that really jumped out to me last year was the way the guys talked about him and they'd be like, well, we have Drake. Well, this guy, nobody has a guy like this. And they were really talking about him like pretty reverentially. And you go from that to what, how the Superbowl played out to what we've seen this year, where now you see a guy who he just seems like he's like, he almost looks like a high school kid who has a big paper coming that he knows he's not prepared for and just has that glaze look on his face. So I think it's more head than shoulder, but I don't love how he answered the shoulder question this week. I would agree. A lot of it's between the ears right now with Drake, just in terms of talking to people who know him, who've been around, who've played against them. It's a lot of it. It's confidence-based. It's just, it really feels that way. It's like a Rocky, Rocky three situation where he, that, like for the first time clubber Lang hit him and he's like, Oh shit. Right. And think about where that started. You just brought it up. They moved the ball. I know they didn't score a lot of points in that first half against the Seahawks, but AJ Brown had three catches. He had like a 34 yard DPI that if Drake just layers the ball out there a little bit more, it's a long touchdown. Like AJ Brown was, I know the numbers weren't huge, but he was impacting that game. And so much of what they built in the off season was, well, we're going to be able to isolate AJ Brown on one side. And then when we get one off the field, we're going to go one on ones. Like he can win every ball that we're going to throw that way. You don't have another guy like that. So what else happens? He goes out. Romeo Dobbs has a huge drop in that game. And then it's the fourth quarter where Drake throws three straight interceptions. It was really just at the tail end. They, they move the ball. Okay. Up until that point. So there there's definitely a correlation between AJ Brown being out. He's eligible to come back week six. I know he's pushing to be back. He was in the locker room this week for some reason. So that definitely, he can't practice until after week. Five. So we won't know for another week. So they lose the AJ Brown piece, but they also, this rared in this tight end that they drafted that they really loved. And they were going to be able to play him and Henry together. And they had this big tight end lineup that they were going to throw at people. And then he didn't play last week. So they lost that look too. They couldn't do the big tight ends. They didn't have a deep threat. Um, and for whatever reason, Jacksonville's D play good. And it just, I don't know. I mean, this Buffalo game, the timing of this couldn't be worse or, or it could be great. Honestly. I mean, the bills, they didn't look great. They didn't look like the bills. No, here's the point is no, it's not, it's not easy. Okay. This is not the team you want to be going against knowing that they can put you in a points race from go. And all of a sudden you're like, well, shit, we got to score 35 with half my defense, not practicing right now. That's not helping us either. Right. But if you can hit on some of those plays, even last week, I know like it doesn't do you any good, but like they had five explosive pass plays, seven of their 10 drives went past the 50. There's a near miss to Mac Jones. There's a miss to, or, uh, Mac Collins, Mr. Mr. Pop Douglas. Like you're, you're pretty close. Like you have some explosiveness. You are moving the football. It's just the turnovers are absolutely killing you. And there's, there's a, there's a Murphy's law aspect to it too. Like the center is bleeding on the football and that leads to the ball slipping out of your hand. Like, like to see Drake, you know, find the ball and fall on it in that particular spot. But like there's a little bit of luck. Like if you can just have the ball fall your way, I know that that's a vast oversimplification, but like come out and just play a little bit better, execute a little bit better, you know, and find a way to, to win that game. All of a sudden you're two and two you're a game back in the division. Again, it's not an easy opponent at all, but look at it, look ahead at the schedule after this game. It looks like you've got some winnable games out there in front of you. You steal this one, like the narrative flips like that. You come out and play like you did. And you continue to turn over the ball at the rate that Drake may is. It's going to be a lot more. Well now what? And the panic level, all the external noise and people going on the radio and saying Mike Vrabel hates Drake may and things like that. Like it's just going to wrap up. We hit that stage this week. That was fun. Um, it's funny with the chargers and the pats, you can talk yourself into the same glass half full of the chargers. It's like, yeah, we sucked against Arizona week one. Fine. Week two, we lost to the Raiders. It seemed like a terrible thing. Maybe the Raiders are pretty good. And then last week we gave away the Buffalo game. We kept, we, you know, we got a million turnovers and we still screwed the game up and that was stupid. That's not going to happen every time. So I don't know. The pats are the same thing. Yeah. We were right in that Seattle thing. And then we blew it. We beat Pittsburgh in week two. They put up a bunch of points against the Bengals a week later and then Jacksonville throw it away. Um, Raiders let's end with them on the six pack. Um, I'm not ready to go there yet to predict. That they're a playoff team because the schedule is really hard, but man, they remind me a lot. The more I look at it and research it and study it, they remind me a lot of what happened with the pats last year where new coach following just a catastrophe of a coaching staff, um, competent quarterback play. They can block, they block better than the pats did. They hit their draft. They hit a bunch of guys in the draft that I think are, you know, are meaningful. And then when you look at it, it's, it's, it's, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's one of the five or six most impactful receivers in the league. And I think they kind of know who they are. There's an identity. Like I was watching the Kubiak, his, his, uh, his speech in the locker room after the game. And, you know, there was a little, like, nobody believes in us buzz. So they, they have my attention is my point. Where do you stand on the word on the Raiders? The other corollary is remember the Patriots, one of that huge spending spree on their defense before last season, right? They got Milton Williams and a bunch of other guys. The Raiders did that. Yeah. You know, they, when they trade Max Crosby for the four days or whatever it was that he was traded, uh, in the meantime, they spent all this money on other defensive players. Then they accidentally get back to a guy who's still one of the best players in the league and Max Crosby who last week, like was absolutely dominating at the end of that game. Like he hasn't gotten to close games like that. Cause they haven't had a lead in five years. I think the best part of the fit with Clint Kubiak going there, besides the obvious fact that he's a very smart offensive coach, when you're developing a quarterback and you want to run a proven system, that's one at the highest level. It's also the Clint it's, it's frankly, the reason that a lot of people within the league, even people who are friends with Clint didn't think he would ever get a head coaching job is he's so flatline. He is so low burn. I think that helps them. I think that these guys have been in absolute chaos for so long. So many firings, so many changes, controversies. Now they've just got like a pretty normal group of humans. I mean, they're two quarterbacks with Kirk and Fernando are the two most like unassuming guys you're ever going to have in that room. Like they're the anti-raiders right now. The quarterbacks have a God room with the third stringer. They are, they just talk about religion. They're even keel. Like this is the Raiders. You couldn't come up with a less Raiders group. I mean, I thought Pete Carroll was the ultimate anti-raiders guy. This is even more so like, it is absolutely like, it's a very positive group of people. You're not expecting them to like get in fights in games. You're not expecting them to have 200 yards in penalties, go get in trouble on the strip. Like I say that and anything's possible, but it just seems like Clint has managed along with some of the other guys he brought in, like Andrew Janoko, the OC Rob Leonard, who's really backed in the building is the TC. Yeah. They're, they're just like a bunch of just kind of normal guys who've just calmed down all the bullshit. And I'm not saying that's enough for them to be a playoff team. This is the biggest game though, that they've had in probably five years in that stadium places can be absolutely rocking Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs come in. If they win this game, I think that we have to start at least talking about, is this an actual playoff team in 2026? I'd be, I mean, if they had the schedule, Pat said last year, we would be talking about them as could this team win 12, 13 games, but their schedule's brutal. Um, this game that they have in against the chiefs. So the line is plus four and a half for the Raiders. So they're baking in like chiefs, Raiders history, my homes, all that stuff. The real thing is the chiefs fans. And I think there's going to be, I don't know if it's going to be good or bad for the Raiders, but I think that energy in that stadium with all the Raiders fans who are just, beating my homes would be the ultimate. Right. But then you're probably going to have 25,000, 30,000 chiefs fans there. And it's going to, I think it's going to feel like a soccer game. I think it's going to be really cool. I, to me, it's the game of the it's the game of the week, other than Bill's pats. Cause Bill's pats is like, yeah, if the pats lay an egg in this game, this is then I think they're a write-off, um, Raiders chiefs that they, the Raiders can stick it to the chiefs and throw a couple of haymakers and just have a good game. I think they could be a playoff team. Um, I think they could be a playoff team. I believe they've got the number one crew calling this game too for CBS or Raiders game in week four. It's pretty wild. Like enjoy it Raiders fans. It's a, it has not been like this very often in a long, long time. And we think Pukunuku is healthy before we go? Everything I've been told is that he's feeling a lot better. Consulted with a bunch of specialists. Everybody agreed, does not need surgery right now. Seems like he's in a better place than he was a week or two ago. And so it appears to be, as far as I know, all systems go for him to be back against the Eagles. All right. Looking forward to the sweep on Saturday. You can hear Tom on the Ringer NFL show as well. Thank you. I will see you next week. Sounds good. Thanks, Bill. I think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration blog, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup required, compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis or EOE can mean you're stuck in many ways, like cutting your food into types. Tiny pieces. Or stuck chewing food for a long time. Dupixent Dupilumab, a prescription medicine for patients one year and older weighing at least 33 pounds, can help with that. It's a breakthrough treatment that can reduce inflammation in the esophagus and improve swallowing. How about this? Dupixent is not a steroid. It proactively treats EOE so you can get ahead of it. Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help. Right away if you have trouble breathing or wheezing or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue or throat. Tell your doctor of new or worsening joint aches and pain or a parasitic infection or asthma. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor. Feeling stuck with EOE? Start treating with Dupixent. Talk to your gastroenterologist or allergist today about Dupixent. Learn more at Dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT. My dad is here recording this on a Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the Red Sox were knocked out. I'm going to be back in a minute. onto and you know it's a lot like drake may and the pats um but he's a really frustrating player to watch and it seemed like by the time we got to them in this series it seemed like the team was really frustrated with them and there's a lot of buzz about that behind the scenes about them wondering you know should he have played through pain is there stuff he could have done where you have contrarious contrarious probably had contrarious said stuff well that there was you know there's buzz but you know contrarious probably had a broken hand that he was just playing with like we don't even know how how hurt he was i wonder like the big thing it's funny because this is three seasons this was the most depressing red sox season like since i was a kid the first i don't know 12 weeks then you had this improbable streak that really lit the city on fire combined with the world cup um really like rejuvenated everything and fenway was packed it was impossible to get tickets people love this team and i went out and i bought a red hat yeah you got a new red sox hat you're excited about it the old one we had to finally bury um and then it became a question near the trade deadline of hey if we can get all these guys back and then add a couple trade deadline pieces this could be one of the best teams i think the bullpen was deep at that point slayton was pitching and guerrero came out of nowhere lights out both of those guys you know didn't make it through the season but they make these two trades one was for mead where they trade a lefty starter early that i thought was good all right i never would have traded that one i would have traded that one early yeah but they needed a bat i get it and they're rich in pitching i wouldn't have necessarily done it but whatever um but then the rutschman trade was the bigger one because he has a big contract coming up and watching him all the time here he's injury prone he doesn't look in shape to me um it's like having engelbert from bad news bears and breaking training um even when that that drops strike he's just slow everything about him just seems kind of doughy and out of shape and he's in his 27 28 year range it makes me think like how is this guy going to age we're going to give this guy a guy a giant contract to justify giving three prospects up in that trade i don't want to do that um everything about that i just think was a failure looking back well looking back you know i i was excited when they traded for him but i was going on past history and i knew he had been hurt and he hadn't really played this year but when he showed up he looked about 20 pounds overweight yeah and they showed a rookie card of and he looked 25 pounds overweight i don't know and as you said he was slow and i never trusted he would get a hit which was really strange because you look at his baseball card and he's done very well yeah but he's not he's not the same guy he'd have a couple swings like he hit a couple bombs at fenway to places that i've only seen a couple people really big ones that wrapped around the pole in spots in right field that home runs don't normally go and it's like oh that's interesting this guy's got some power but ultimately for what they gave up i don't think he's a sure thing a couple of things yeah he did have some hits but if you look back most of them were not when people were on base right they were like solo in the first five innings he was not a guy i wanted to come up with two outs and men on second and third and you needed the hit to drive in runs to tire go ahead he didn't do it uh he'd he'd have that soft fly to the outfield or if he was hitting lefty the ground to the second base right he just he wasn't the guy i think they hoped they were getting he was still somehow better than connor um i don't know i you know for what they gave up yeah you talked about their pitching yeah they gave up early they gave up their two top prospects pitching prospects and the minus yeah and you actually go and you look at these guys stats it's one of your weird things you like looking at our minor league stats our best guys you were the most upset when jeff bagwell got traded out of anyone i know yeah you were like i was looking at his new britain box course they give up a lot for rutschman though and it seemed like he was the leader of that baltimore team and i like the reactions of his teammates i was like oh that's a good sign they seem really bummed out they seem like they really liked him but now you look back and you think they had this 32 and five and then other than that they were basically what 15 games under 500 for all the other games and you wonder like red sox stats this twitter account i follow the guy's great and he was saying like if if all the wins had just been scattered across the season and there was no streak like that and the team was just the team would the gm have survived today would they have extended the manager you know it was really that streak really really broke everybody's brains it felt like yeah they got put in a tough place with the manager after he brought them back yeah he kind of had they kind of had to commit to him i agree but i would have not touched the general manager um yeah like so he so he signs last year they don't get alonso but they get you know they get contreras and they get the two pitchers suarez and and gray well let's back and he's spent a lot of time with them and he's spent a lot of time with a lot of money on suarez and gray but those were also two of the best starters available and they just paid for them i don't i don't know how much credit you get for that well but he paid the alonso money for suarez who we never saw in the yankee series because we lost the two games exactly and and whether alonso had 41 or 42 homers was a threat every and and you never get seems like he never gets hurt contreras a likable player always hurt um well the problem is he stands over home plate they're in these pictures to hit him i like contreras i think that one was a little more defensible but i just when i look big picture the devers trade nobody's left right um the roman anthony extension that they gave which was a really big commitment that you give if somebody is the all-time can't miss obviously he's not an all-time can't miss the christian campbell money they gave that was kind of ridiculous um i just don't know if there was enough there and then a bunch of young people that were you know were pretty disappointing but i think he got a lot of mileage from toli and early and you know this young generation of arms they were able to vote i would have rather have seen them stick with toli early and sunny gray um who's probably going to leave now because they his quotes after the game were disturbing very understandable though i mean if they they had a video of his facial expression when the manager came out to get him yeah the manager put his hand on his shoulder i'm surprised he didn't slap it away right i mean what well especially to bring in miller out when we had just seen this the night before it was like this isn't gonna go well um yeah the whole thing was they weren't gonna beat the yankees they i mean the yankees because they didn't have judge like even for this series the yankees were only like minus 170 favorites and i was saying this sound on the net i was like i don't get it like we can't hit that's the only way we're gonna win is we're gonna lose and this is like 2110 did you feel we both hate the yankees obviously did you feel like this hurt extra because it was the yankees or this was just we they just they were obviously going to win they had way more talent this hurt way extra watching the yankee fans for two nights in a row yeah that was my answer come on i didn't even talk to jacko jacko texted me today he's like you all right you okay i was like i told you we're gonna lose that was bad you know it's funny i have a friend who's a yankee fan and he's like i'm gonna lose i'm gonna lose i'm gonna lose i'm gonna lose a strong chicago white socks fan and and i was saying that i wish you know the the downside of that streak we had was yeah it pushed us into that yankee matchup yeah we were talking about whether we should have tanked just brought up all these dudes from the minors i mean houston looked dead yeah i i think i i would have liked to i maybe eventually you have to play the yankee i don't know but um it try to avoid them as much as possible the other thing that hurt was the lockout because the one guy they didn't trade to the orioles for engelbert was uh arias the the shortstop who seems like a phenom and i think it there was a lot of stuff written about this if the lockout wasn't happening next year they would have brought this guy up in september and i think he would have played much like the yankees had lombard who became a big part of their team down the stretch i think arias would have played i think they would have fit him in and i think he would have fit him in somewhere and he would have maybe give them a little bit of a jolt but they couldn't bring him up because once the lockout happens you can't even let those guys in the facility maybe but um it wouldn't help given the decisions the manager made touching wise true um i mean it i i it felt like he panicked in the fifth inning of both games he just panicked um are you gonna give him a nickname like second row chad no i like the guy i i like the way the camaraderie i i mentioned camaraderie on the bench but i don't think he's going to be able to the team together yeah everybody liked each other um they did go south in the month most of the month of september uh well i remember when we went to the game on friday with uh with zoe and zoe's boyfriend and carrie and oh you did i didn't get friday you didn't get invited not after you wouldn't walk home the other time but we were we were you wouldn't elect it anyway because the weather was bad but we had our lineup coming up and these different guys were coming up and hank and i were being you know we're like oh man here comes the ground out this is going to be a strikeout uh trevor story trevor story struck out all three times in the wife was like you guys are so negative like why aren't you why don't you be more positive about the team and i was like because i watched this team like we're we stopped hitting like this is not going to happen we our bats are dead this is just the way it's going to be and you know we won that game two nothing but that was really their only chance i mean they the injuries they had this year first of all tristan cassis i i guess he's just gone he's been gone for two years well he's like he's still the red socks but he's still hurt yeah he who misses two straight years so he's gone um that crochet we lost basically in april for the whole year and then you go through the other guys like people you haven't even thought of probably forever like cutter crawford um gasper comes up right as the team's about to die turns into babe ruth for three weeks and then gets hurt right before the playoffs he's the one guy i would have trusted in the yankee series he's just right on you know but with that you know you're right with that short right field porch um and and he gets hurt friday right um should he have been playing i don't know we didn't we didn't need those games um and then anthony seems like he got hurt in the very last game where they made everybody fly to tampa bay for no reason at all to play the cubs but so big picture well big you know i was talking to a friend this friend paul and we were talking about a year and a half ago and you and i had the same discussion we were riding high we had a franchise quarterback yeah uh looked like he was going to be a stud for the next 10 years and we had a franchise our next ted williams the lefty header roman anthony right it's going to start for the wbc for america yeah and now and things and we had a stud leading the celtics to 70 to 50 six wins and it's funny how in sports things things just change you you can't count on things anymore um i don't understand why we can't count on drake may i don't know what happened there i he was the last person i ever thought we'd be worried about and yet we watched the game on sunday together and then when i was driving around in boston on monday listening to wi and he had the interview and was talking about his shoulder and yeah just really wouldn't answer questions about it and then he tried to clarify it yesterday i guess i don't know what's going on with him i don't know if you saw but for the first time this season i think he was on the injury report yesterday for the shoulder right so they they did put him on the report i don't know it yeah the shoulder is one thing but i know we switched to football but it's just this decision making it's the funny feet in the pocket it's uh it's not hanging in there the way other quarterbacks are like to have that last second to make the throw well and then the deep throws last year versus this year is the weirdest one to me he had the best deep ball i've ever watched regularly in my life last year he was just on it all the time and this year he's either short or it's all over the place or lafsky did a thing today actually on nfl live about his his right foot and how last year was pointed out for leverage and this year he's his feet are straight and he's like this is bad this is why his i i i don't know there could be 19 things other you know obviously i talked to people and media people and one of the consensus thoughts is like this is all in his head this is just he got the shit kicked out of him in the playoffs last year by a couple different defenses in a row who threw all these different things at him well and now he's in his head yeah yeah i mean we talked about how he he really got beat up in the playoffs um and and with way in in ways of defense is throwing things at him that he hadn't seen so like this weekend they played buffalo who doesn't have a good defense at all you know a team that he's had real success against and i don't have any confidence at all but jacksonville supposedly didn't have a good defense right and uh and they got to him or he thought they were getting to him which is which is part of what i'm seeing he thinks they're getting to him and uh these wild throws off the back foot often too which you didn't do last year yeah i think they're gonna lose this weekend a.j brown will come back and then week five will be the week where they have the come to jesus week where it's like what is this team is this team gonna rally or not you know it's not like there's seven afc playoff teams that we can count up right now so you can go one and three and be fine um i would expect that they lose this week but big picture like the a.j brown was such a big piece of what they want to do i also mcdaniel's drives you and i crazy i don't understand how they're using henderson at all makes no sense to me they've had a lot of injuries like even we're taping this today gonzalez didn't practice today he's another he's another one that it feels like we can't get four straight good weeks out of him in a row is there a reason why mcdaniel mcdaniel doesn't have henderson run wide i'm so tired of swing passes or swing passes where he's out out in the open it's so tiring to watch first first down pass second down second down run yeah run into the line two yard run right into the line yeah our line is all beat up so why are they doing that um frustrating yeah obviously the last two nights were terrible uh i had and i was pretty positive about our pitching lineup yeah um i liked all three starters i thought i thought they're gonna win game two i really thought gray was gonna come through and i thought it was i thought it could be like a one nothing or two one i was i would i wouldn't say i was confident but i had higher hopes than game one i i just think schlittler is the best guy in the league like he wasn't we weren't getting hits off him he was pretty unhittable he's ridiculous yeah that's totally you know matched him for except for the one pitch he matched him one nothing until he got taken out uh how do you feel about the fact that we've had five years of trevor story he's a hard entire half decade trevor story and his 296 on base and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy and he's a great guy kind of the sad look i was saying that hench and my friends in the red sox thread he has the same kind of face and body language of all the guys from the 86 team like he could have totally fit in with rich gedman and bob stanley and charalde he just just feels like something bad's gonna happen when you see him and as soon as he showed up after the streak it was like ah we're back i i just feel like he's the jinx it i wish he had never come back but you know i understand he's a real nice guy yeah he seems like a great teammate and he's probably a good family man and a good teammate but uh uh watching him at bat yeah it's is it's it's a struggle to watch him at bat uh that was mostly all the strikeouts jaron doran jaron doran i think oh he's another one i think i'm good on but you know that go back to we won 15 and then lost two and won nine in a row it wasn't with trevor story no he wasn't part of that picture um and the guys they had some guys i never heard of until this season but they seemed to get big hits at the right time and big hits meaning they were hitting with guys on base yeah and suddenly the month of september we were not hitting with guys on base no trevor story would come up guys on first and second second third you weren't confident at all we were gonna get runs or ikf was another one none of these guys ikf i i don't understand why he's playing um well siegler got hurt yeah it's just yeah just everybody got hurt you'd get used to these guys i i can't remember a baseball season quite like it but i will say it was the most fun i've had during a season in the probably in the 2020s right yeah but really since mookie left putting the three weeks last three weeks of september aside and the last two nights it was a very it was a fun comeback it was a fun season we probably never deserved to be in the playoffs the way we're playing the downside is now we have a general manager like you said who's we're stuck with until 19 until uh 2030 well the other downside is the yankees have a legitimate chance to make the world series and they can't win again it's the one thing we have we have four this century they have one we we need tampa bay to take them down you need to become a junior campbell fan i ordered a tampa bay shirt today so they were really good i thought that was the best team we played this year they were good they're just like they do everything right and they have an absolutely terrifying main hitter and they have a really good bullpen and i i just thought they're impressive yeah um so pats you're still holding on and then um celtic starting in less than three weeks yeah pretty soon you talked yourself into the paul george trade we can announce it now no you didn't i when did i do that oh i thought you thought you might have i thought by opening day i thought you're on a schedule going to a therapist every day i i want to see if he plays how many games he plays this year i guess that will tell me something um it seems like when he plays he contributes yeah but he misses he missed so many i know he was suspended 25 games says he feels really healthy this year he's really excited to play off jason tatum he said all the right things immediate day he has said all the right things he loves playing off superstars like that i like the robinson edition obviously and i like the guard edition in his 20th year. I think I like the articles. Yeah, he's mentoring Pritchard. They become fast friends and all of that is good. Maybe we're more well-rounded. I don't know. The vibes are going to be great on this team. And Detroit will be way worse. Philly is a wild card. Toronto is going to be the, probably the team that jumps into the Detroit spot. I think Toronto is going to be really good. Cleveland will be around the same. East is good. East is good. We're not going to win 56 games again. But again, it's so early. You don't know about injuries. You don't know about the Greek in Miami, how he'll play if it got hurt again. Right. It's so early when injuries play such a part during the season. Sounds like you're like a C-plus for excitement for the season. No, I'm probably a B-minus. You know, nobody's talking about Tatum who is still not that far removed from an Achilles injury. Hopefully he's 100%. I don't know. I hope so. It's your 33rd year with tickets. No, it's not. I mean, your 53rd year. No, 54th year. 54th? 73, 74. Oh, it's your 54th year. Yes, it is. Damn. Yeah. Maybe, except for people who give their tickets after the dad dies, or mom dies to the family. You think you're the longest continuous season ticket holder. Well, I'm certainly up there. I'm certainly up there. God forbid they figured this out. Take them like two minutes. Maybe I'm the only one who's still thinking and speaking coherently. Still getting upset. I think this team's going to be good. I really, I think they're going to be fun to watch and they'll just be a better version of last year's team, but the league's going to be harder because they're going to be better. Because there's less shit teams. I'll just segue one quick second. I watched most of two channels the other night. The Bruins look pretty good in game one. Really? Yeah. You're in on them too? 3-0 shutout game one. Well, they made the regular season longer. It's 84 games now. You're the only person who watches all 84. It's a long season when the first game is in September 30th, I guess. That's weird, but hey, we got the Patriots. We got the Celtics. We got the Bruins. We had, for the most part, a great run with the Red Sox until the manager imploded. Yeah. Well, here's what we have with the Pats if they lose to Buffalo. The next two games are home. Las Vegas and the Jets. Those are both winnable. At Chicago, at Miami, they'll at least split those. Miami's the worst team in the league. Las Vegas is home. Las Vegas is home. Home, okay. Yeah, so they could be four and four after eight games. They play Green Bay week nine. Green Bay's terrible this year. At Detroit, at the Chargers, which seemed like a really hard game, but the Chargers are terrible. Buffalo home, Minnesota home, at Kansas City, at Jets, home Denver, home Miami to end the season. You know, it's not the schedule. It's, are we going to see a confident Drake May? Right. Is he going to stay in the pocket? Is he going to not make those dumb decisions he's been making? And is his shoulder okay? I mean, everybody gets banged up. Is it okay? I guess we'll find out enough in the next couple of weeks. I wonder if we were the year from hell team. I've been thinking about it a lot. Yeah. It feels like everything's gone wrong since the Super Bowl. It's starting the night of the Super Bowl. And all the signs were there and I chose not to look at them. But I can't think of seven. Seven playoff teams in the AFC. So maybe, maybe we have that going for us. Vegas might be good. Would be, we'll find out more about Vegas this week, but. Well, Vegas has played well. And they've played well. They've been home though. Wait, before we go, can you, can you tell people what it was like to try to watch Sunday football with me with the multi-view? It wasn't, you had, you had four games on the screen, the big screen. Yeah. And then you had a game on your iPad right in front of me. Yeah. And you had the sound on only one game and you kept switching it off the Patriots to other games. And I know when I went downstairs, I took, I think I took four Tylenol. My head was spinning. You did. You left after two hours, less than two hours. You were like, I'm out. I know that you have to do it because it's part of what you do. And you have to talk about it Sunday night. But as a fan trying to watch his own team, who's not all that interested in, the other teams this early in the season. Yeah. It was, it was difficult. Well, I would say the good news, it was distracting you from a really horrible Patriots-Jacksonville game. Yes and no. Yeah, I guess a little bit. Wait, before we go, what TV shows are you watching? Well, the new shows start this week. Okay. So what are we looking forward to? Oh, we're looking forward to the three Chicago shows, definitely on Wednesday night. What's that? Chicago PD, Fire and. And Med. Med, okay. And then on Tuesday night, you have FBI and CIA. Those are pretty good. That's CBS too? Yeah. Monday night, you have NCIS and NCIS Origins, which I really like a lot. Wait, what was the show, LL Cool J and Scott Kahn, NCIS New York? Well, that's a new one. NCIS New York is a brand new show, yeah. It's in the lineup. Okay. It's in my lineup. I'll give it a try. And then did you watch The Pit or you didn't? No, I didn't. I didn't watch The Pit, but I like the. You like the Taylor Sheridan shows? U.S. Marshalls show. Yeah. That's pretty good. And The Line, The Line of Fire, Line of Duty, I can't remember the name of the show, brand new. Yeah, Line of Fire, I think it's called. Line of Fire, I gave it a try. I'm going to watch the second episode. I have no more Red Sox, so I have time for my show. It's really sad when, especially when you get in the habit of having it on every night and then it's just gone. But I'll still, I'll watch the baseball playoffs. We're taping this before the third game of Indiana-Las Vegas for WNBA. WNBA's been really good this week. Yeah. There's some things to patch it together. You have regular season hockey. A final thing, though, you just kind of alluded to it. It's so hard to watch the 162 games and you're really into it. Yeah. You get in the playoffs and in two games, you're gone. Yeah. And the two games, you don't get a home game. I just, and maybe someday they'll see them according to records, but you have Houston playing the Chicago White Sox. Houston's the home team. Does that make any sense to you? Yeah, they were a 500 team. Right. They should have seeded the teams. I don't know where we would have ended up, but we wouldn't, wouldn't have started with the Yankees for sure. Well, it's still better than how we did it in the seventies or like 1978 when we tied the Yankees at the playoff game. We had the two best records in the American League and we didn't even play in the playoffs. It's better, but how hard would it be just to seed them by record in each league? Yeah. It's not hard at all. Nobody from the AL West should have hosted a playoff game. No. I think that's fair. All right. Well, good luck to Drake May. Thanks for popping on. I'll see you next week. Thanks for having me. All right. I'll see you next week when your daughter's team suddenly starts winning. Yeah. Well, I hope so. I really need to win at this point. All right. Bye, dad. All right. Bye. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to my dad. Thanks to Tom Palacero. Thanks to the one and only Joe House. Thanks to Eduardo and Gahal and Chris as well. Enjoy the weekend. I'm going to be coming back on Sunday live on Netflix after the Sunday night game. And don't forget to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This weekend, because that is going to be the next Rewatchables. Enjoy the weekend. See you Sunday. Must be 21 plus and president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18.5. Plus I'm president DC or Wyoming. Opt-in required bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration, max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fandler.com. Game problem, call 1-800-GAMBLE or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 888-79-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 seven. Support Massachusetts or call 877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 877-770-7867. Having uncontrolled eosinophilic esophagitis or EOE can mean you're stuck in many ways, like cutting your food into tiny pieces or stuck chewing food for a long time. Dupixent dupilumab, a prescription medicine for patients One year and older weighing at least 33 pounds can help with that. You can get with this, or you can get with that. How about this? Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or wheezing or swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, or throat. Before this. there's this. As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people growing the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hardworking people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit carhartt.com slash join the trades to learn more.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Post-workout recovery is crucial for athletes, and Core Power Protein Shakes offer high-quality protein and electrolytes in one convenient bottle.
  2. FanDuel’s Rewards Club lets users earn points on eligible bets, level up, and unlock bigger rewards regardless of win or loss.
  3. The Browns made a strong playoff push with a surprising win over the Steelers, showing improved performance and team cohesion.
  4. Deshaun Watson has regained confidence, with standout plays suggesting a significant turnaround from earlier struggles, aided by new offensive coordinator Todd Munkin.
  5. The Fever Aces defeated the Indiana Fever in a closely contested game, highlighting the Aces’ offensive efficiency and clutch performances.
  6. Officiating issues and player behavior, especially involving Asia, sparked controversy, raising concerns about league management and fairness.
  7. The analysis highlights a shift in team dynamics, with improved offensive schemes and better player performance in key matchups.
  8. Bill Simmons and co. discuss betting insights, team performance, and player trends, while acknowledging the unpredictability and drama in modern sports.

Summary:

The episode blends sports analysis, betting insights, and promotional content, centering on the evolving performance of NFL and WNBA teams. The Browns’ unexpected victory over the Steelers showcases resilience and improved team execution, while Deshaun Watson’s resurgence signals a turning point for the Houston Texans, driven by new offensive strategies and coaching. In the WNBA, the Aces’ win over the Fever highlights their offensive efficiency and composure, though the game was marred by officiating issues and controversy involving player Asia.

The discussion also reflects on the unpredictability of modern sports, including player performance, team dynamics, and officiating standards. Promotional segments highlight Core Power Protein Shakes for post-workout recovery and FanDuel’s Rewards Club for bettors. The team evaluates betting lines, including confidence in the Texans, Rams, and Bengals, while acknowledging the risks of over-relying on trends.

The episode concludes with a mix of humor, player narratives, and strategic insights, emphasizing how teams evolve and how fans engage with the games. It also touches on broader themes like league fairness, player development, and the impact of coaching changes.

FAQs

Core Power Protein Shakes provide high-quality protein and electrolytes to support muscle building and hydration, making it an effective post-workout recovery solution in one convenient bottle.

Core Power Protein Shakes are available in 26-gram and 42-gram protein options to suit different recovery needs and preferences.

FanDuel Rewards Club lets users earn points on eligible settled bets, level up, and unlock bigger rewards, regardless of whether they win or lose.

Members earn points on every eligible bet, collect points over time, and unlock rewards by leveling up, making it a rewarding way to engage with sports betting.

The podcast features in-depth analysis of games, player performances, and team strategies, often including discussions on betting, fan culture, and broader sports trends.

The Browns won in the final moments with a 56-yard field goal, after nearly blowing it, and the game was noted for their strong performance despite being underdogs.

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